The Tapgirl Princess
by tapgrrl
Summary: Who would think that a 14-year old girl who puts metal taps on her shoes -- and she's not even in the school marching band! -- would have such an effect on the town of Forest Glen -- and beyond!
1. Note to Readers

NOTE TO READERS:

I have always liked having taps on my shoes and boots - love that clicky sound! So I decided to write a story about it. Hope you like it! (It's not really finished, so give me some ideas on what to do next!)

Chapters 24-27 (and future ones) might be rated MX and therefore can't be published here. If you want to read them, go to my blog: tapgrrl. wordpress. com (drop those spaces of course) and search for Brittney.

Looking forward to readers and reviews! Thanks!


	2. Brittney Discovers Taps

Boys weren't _always_ the most important thing in Brittney's life. There was a time—though it was hard to remember—that Brittney didn't do things just to get their attention. Like the time when she was 13 and ran away from home, it wasn't because of a boy—she was just angry at her parents and tired of them trying to interfere with her life. And when she started smoking that year, it wasn't to get the boys to look at her; she just found that smoking helped her feel more at ease and more grown up. And although she certainly was aware that boys were attracted to girls with blonde hair, it wasn't because of that that she decided to bleach her shoulder-length straight brown hair. She just liked the way that blonde hair looked on her.

But every time she did these things, she ended up making the other girls jealous of her, and she found it really hard to stay friends with her girlfriends for very long. And the opposite happened with boys. Every time she lit up a cigarette, tossed her blonde hair around, and exhaled in that special way she taught herself to, boys would flock to her. That made her feel really wanted and helped to fill that void of friendship in her life. So more and more, the things she did she did for the attention of boys, and as her former girlfriends kept telling vicious lies about her, she had to do everything she could to show the boys that she was worthy of their attention.

One day, not long after she started high school, she discovered something that really did get the boys' attention. She was supposed to be in school that day, but she often found it much more fun to rummage around in old thrift shops for clothes and jewelry. And besides, school was B-O-R-I-N-G. She'd gone into a really artsy thrift shop she'd just discovered, and while perusing the shoe aisle suddenly saw some vintage 1960s cowboy boots that really appealed to her—black boots, soft leather, tapered heels, with gorgeous swirly blue and grey designs going up the 10-inch shaft. Although they were men's boots, they fit her quite well. One thing about them was different, though. On the bottom of the heel, they had this huge plate of steel, in a horseshoe shape, and when she walked around in them they made the most awesome clicky sound. It was music to her ears!

When she asked the woman who was running the shop about the steel plates, the woman replied, "Oh, those are horseshoe taps. Guys used to put them on their loafers and boots and even their oxfords, mostly because of the noise they made. They were great at attracting the girls!" The woman paused for a moment, and then continued, with a slight smile on her face. "Taps were also great on girls' shoes for attracting boys!"

Well, that was all Brittney needed to know. Except one thing. "Can I get those horseshoe taps put on the other shoes I own?" The clerk replied, "I don't know—ask Sam at the Shoe Repair down the street."

So after purchasing her new-old cowboy boots, and wearing them out of the store (of course), she walked directly to Sam's, making such an awesome sound on the sidewalk that by the time she got to the shoe repair place, she was already wet in that spot that responds to that kind of excitement. "So, Sam," she said to the older Italian guy who operated the shop she'd been in numerous times but never thought much about. "See these boots I just got." Standing on one leg, she bent the other backwards so Sam could see the horseshoe taps underneath. "So do you still put these horseshoe taps on people's shoes and boots?"

"Not very often," said Sam, with a twinkle in his eye. "Most people these days like the quiet black nylon taps for some reason. But I never understood that. I always liked to put the metal taps on people's shoes, particularly the girls' shoes."

"Oh," asked Brittney. "Did girls used to put horseshoe taps on also?"

"Well, not so often," said Sam. "Mostly the girls put metal taps on their shoes that looked like this." And he held up a kidney-shaped metal plate, about two inches long, with three holes for the nails that would attach them to the shoes. "This is the kind of tap that most of the girls wore on their shoes…. Except for these—and he held up a steel spike. "Women used to come in to have these steel spikes put on to replace the rubber tips on their dressy pumps."

"Well," said Brittney. "Those kidney plates look nice to me. How about putting them on these loafers?" And she gave him the pair of loafers that she'd been wearing when she bought her new cowboy boots.

"OK," said Sam. "I can put some taps on them. How large a pair would you like on the loafers?"

"Big ones," said Brittney. "I really like the sounds these horseshoe taps make on my new cowboy boots. So can you make the loafers make the same kind of sound?"

"Sure," said Sam. He fiddled in his drawer for awhile, and then said, "here, these would be good for your loafers." They were bright, shiny taps, marked Eagle and the number 7 on them, and he disappeared into the back and started pounding the taps into Brittney's loafers.

With each bang of Sam's hammer, Brittney felt her heart pound. The thought that those shiny, metal plates would soon be on the loafers she wore day in and day out was hugely exciting. Her juices started flowing once again.

Soon, Sam emerged from the back of the shop. He said, "Brittney, I hope you don't mind but I put on another pair of taps on the loafers too. I added some taps at the front, just like the ones on your cowboy boots. You hadn't asked about toe taps, but I thought you'd like them." And then Brittney looked at her cowboy boots and saw that they too had metal plates under the toes. She'd been so excited by the horseshoe taps, she hadn't even noticed them!

"Sure, Mr. Sam. They look fine under the toes too. Did girls put taps anywhere else besides the toes and heels?"

"Yes, Brittney. Sometimes they put them on the sides of the soles, like this." And he placed a smaller tap, about an inch and a half long, on the side of one of the soles of a loafer to show her. "Do you want me to put some side taps on, too?"

"Well, let's save those for next time," Brittney said. "I need to break myself in slowly with taps. They're brand new to me."

So she left the shoe repair store with a newfound affection for it and its owner, Sam DiMaggio. And then she walked back to school, this time in her loafers, with their brand new shiny heel and toe taps.

How nice were they? Well, from Brittney's point of view, they were very nice. Not only did she love the clickety-click sounds the large heel taps made and the little teeny click the toe tap made when it too slipped across the cement, but in the ten blocks she had to walk to her school, she counted 5 young men who smiled at her and 4 older women who gave disapproving stares (which she interpreted as a positive sign). Then, as she clicked into the school, down the hall to her hateful history class, and settled into her seat, she managed to stop the entire school in its tracks, every eye trained on her. Most importantly, for Brittney, every boy was smiling at her, and, she thought excitedly, was probably drooling to get inside her pants. And that made her feel very special.


	3. The Taps Fad Spreads

You would have to have been blind (and deaf) not to notice what all these changes to Brittney's appearance had on her demeanor, her attitudes, and her experiences. From a fairly ordinary girl-next-door 8th grader, by the middle of her first year in high school she had become stunningly pretty, brimming with confidence, and the center of attention for most of the high school male population. As she walked around the school, in—depending on her mood—a short, plaid skirt and brown penny loafers with metal taps on their heels or her tight-fitting jeans and jet black cowboy boots with the huge horseshoe taps on them—she was almost always in animated conversation with one or another of the boys, from the senior quarterback of the football team to the cutest 10th grade guy in the whole school. And when she happened to be alone, her sexy pout and her bleached-out platinum blonde hair layered over her natural brown coloring drew everyone's attention to her face—that is, when they weren't looking at her shapely legs, drawn by the regular, rhythmic clickety-click sounds coming from the heels of her footwear. And when the final school bell rang and students broke for their cars and lit up their cigarettes, usually at least three or four guys would offer her a ride home and share a smoke along the way.

What was most interesting is the effect that Brittney had on the girls at her school. At first, the girls were jealous, and most of them avoided talking with her. But one by one, a girl would come along and start up a conversation. Very often the talk would drift to clothes and shoes, and as often as not the chatter would turn to the metal taps on Brittney's shoes. By March, Brittney had had taps put on the heels and toes of all eight pairs of shoes she wore, from her white skimmer flats to her dressy knee-length chunky-heel boots, so she was always seen and heard in clicky metal taps everywhere she went. Each of these conversations went about the same:

Julie: "I love those boots you're wearing."

Brittney: "Thanks! I got them on sale last fall at the Fashion Bug."

Julie: "I notice you always have metal taps on your boots and shoes."

Brittney: "Yeah, I really like the clicky sounds they make!"

Julie: "Don't they make you slip?"

Brittney: "No, after they've been worn a few times, they're not slippery."

Julie: "Where did you get the taps put on?"

Brittney: "Over at Sam's. He'll do it for free if you smile nicely!"

Julie: "I think I might like to have some put on my new spring flats."

Brittney: "Sure, that would be cool."

And then, a couple of days after the conversation with Brittney, another girl would be heard clicking around the school with taps on her shoes.

First it was just one or two girls. People would look up, thinking that it was Brittney making those sounds. And then they noticed it was Julie or Diana or someone else. By late April, it had become a cacophony! More than half of the 9th grade girls and almost as many of the older girls had taken their shoes over to Sam's and had the shiny silver metal plates attached to the bottoms of their shoes. Loafers had taps; sandals had taps; slingback heels had taps; and of course boots had taps. Some of the boots, like Brittney's cowboy boots, had horseshoe taps covering almost all of the heel, but mostly they were the kind on Brittney's loafers, two inches or more of steel in a crescent shape covering most of the back of the heel and the front of the sole under the toes.

Eventually, taps made their way to boys' shoes too. John was one of the first. Brittney had met John during her first week at Forest Glen High. He was an outgoing sort of guy—always surrounded by friends and telling jokes. By the middle of the school year, he had become stuck on Brittney. He loved how she looked—how she smiled all the time and how her blonde hair shined in the sun. After school, he'd watch other guys go up to her and take her off to their cars, but not having a car he wasn't sure how to get her to pay attention to him. And then he thought of TAPS. So after school one day he walked over to Sam's.

"Sam," he called out. "A lot of the girls at school have started to wear metal taps on their shoes."

"So tell me about it," said Sam. "I've had to order more taps from my supplier three times already this year. And each order has been bigger than the last!"

"Are taps only for girls shoes? Is it 'sissy' to have taps on your shoes, like you're a tap dancer or something? Or is it something that guys can do too?"

Sam laughed. "Ask your parents, John. Back when they were in school, it was the guys who put the biggest, noisiest taps on their shoes and boots, and it was the girls who followed after them and put metal taps on to copy their boyfriends. So, taps are definitely a male thing too."

"O.K.," said Sam. "Let me try them on these harness boots I have on."

Sam replied, "Let's have a look at these…. Hmmm, the heels are already worn down some at the back. If I put on these crescent-shaped taps, they won't stick very well. I think it would be better to have full horseshoes on these heels. Then, the front nails will help the taps bend to the shape of the heel."

"O.K., Sam, whatever you say. Put on all the taps you want. I need to impress a girl I want to get to know!"

"Which girl is that?" Sam asked.

"Oh, just a ninth grader—she's really cute though. Her name is Brittney Davis."

"Brittney!" Sam exclaimed. "You're going to need a lot of taps to impress HER! Take off your boots and I'll see what I can do."

So John pulled off his boots while Sam picked through a tray of taps in all different sizes. Then taking boots and taps in hand, Sam went off to work. About ten minutes later, he returned and showed John what he had for him. On the bottoms of each of the harness boots' heels was a double layer of horseshoe taps, one under the other. On the soles were three pair of taps, each two inches long—one under the toes and one along each side.

"How is this," Sam asked?

"Whoa!" said John. "I'm not sure I'm up to all of this."

"Sure you are," reassured Sam. "If you want to impress Brittney, this is how to do it!"

So out marched John Baker with his newly steeled harness boots, clanging along the sidewalk with every step, clickety-clack-clop, clickety-clack-clop, each step more confident than the one before, and now ready to challenge "tapgirl" herself.


	4. Taps in Math Class What a Distraction!

Brittney was enjoying the fact that she was "in" with the girls again. Now that most of the other girls had put metal taps on their shoes, it was like a club, and Brittney, everyone agreed, was the "Tapgirl Princess." Some of the girls just put on little heel taps, about an inch long, because they weren't sure they were ready for large taps. But to the most outgoing girls, like Brittney, the kind who were always blowing cigarette smoke into the air and talking extra loud so they would be overheard, taps only made sense if they were _noisy_! So, following Brittney's lead, a lot of the girls, especially the attractive girls who she hung around with most of the time, only wore shoes with large taps that were easily noticed and heard. They even started talking about the taps by the number that was etched into each one by the manufacturer.

"How come you only put number 4's on those, Nicole?"

"Oh, I wanted to put 6's on, like on my loafers and sandals, but Sam said they wouldn't fit on these heels. See, the taps cover most of the little heel as it is. But he put some nice number 3's on the toes, see, and some number 1's on the sides! So they're as clicky as my other shoes anyway."

Just to be sure that other people knew they had taps on (and were therefore worth being friends with), a lot of the girls took to dragging their heels as they walked along the sidewalk. So instead of the click-click-click sound that you first heard at Forest Glen High, you now more often heard the sound of "scrape, click, scrape, scrape" because most of the heel-strikes were drawn out as the girls' shoes slipped along the floor.

But, as usual, it was Brittney (and her friend Beth) who discovered a new trick with her taps—one that all the girls took to. Late one night, walking back to her parked car at the mall, Britney was in a hurry and walking ahead of Beth. Then Beth noticed that as Brittney was scraping her taps along the sidewalk, she made sparks with her shoes! Brittney hadn't noticed because the sparks only showed up at night and usually only the people behind you could see them.

"Hey, Brit, your taps are making sparks! Turn around and tell me if my taps make sparks too?" Brittney stopped and watch as Beth proceeded to walk ahead, each step making really long, loud drags along the parking lot blacktop.

"Cool! Beth, you are making really awesome sparks with your taps. Let's go drive over to the Rock and show the other girls. They're all waiting there for us. They will love it that we can make sparks with our taps!"

And from that point on, the boys all started calling the Forest Glen tapgirls "sparklers."

Now that was not what their teachers called them. In fact, Mr. Wilson, Brittney's math teacher was really annoyed at Brittney and the other girls who wore taps on their shoes. Kids thought Mr. Wilson was really boring, and they often came late to class. Whenever one of the girls would arrive after he started talking, she almost always would come in dragging her heels and making as much noise with her taps as she could—purposely distracting the other students and drawing their attention away from Mr. Wilson's Algebra lesson.

But it was not just the clickety-scrape sounds as the late arrivals made their way to their seats that upset Mr. Wilson. What really got to him was all the noise the girls made with their taps while they were sitting at their seat.

For most of the girls, math class was not where they wanted to be. And when a girl's mind wandered or when she wanted some attention, she'd turn her body into the aisle next to her seat, cross her legs, let her foot come up out of her shoe, and dangle her heel. As often as not, pretty soon the girl's foot would come totally out of her shoe and the shoe would fall to the floor making a hard "clack" as the heel tap banged against the hard surface. When this happened, young Laurie or Melissa or Ashley would have to slide her foot back into her shoe. In doing so, she'd have to slide her shoe along the floor, forcing the heel tap to make that sweet sound of metal scraping along a tile floor. Still more sounds to annoy Mr. Wilson.

If it was Brittney who dropped her shoe, you can be sure she'd make a whole production out of it! First, she'd let her other shoe drop too—clack! Then she'd bend down and raise both shoes up to eye level and turn them over so the heels and soles were face up, making sure everyone saw the large metal taps that covered several inches of shoe leather. Just to be sure that everyone had noticed that she had taps on her shoes, she'd bang the two heel taps together twice to make a pair of crisp metallic claps—click, click. Then she'd smile at whoever caught her eye (usually a guy she liked), run her hand smoothly over her taps and then slowly put each of the shoes back on her feet. Of course, in order to make sure that each foot was fully seated inside the shoe, Brittney would have to stomp down hard on her heels, banging the taps against the floor one more time. By this point, everyone was totally distracted and it took Mr. Wilson another two minutes to get everyone's attention—that is, unless Sarah or Megan or Jessica decided to dangle and drop one of their shoes in the same way.

Just the way things were with the "sparkler" tapgirls of Forest Glen High.


	5. John OutTaps Brittney Will it Last?

It was on a Tuesday that John Baker had his harness boots fixed up at Sam's Shoe Repair with double-thick steel horseshoe heel plates and toe and side taps on the soles. He wanted to wear his boots in front of Brittney to check out her response, but since tap wearing in Forest Glen was still pretty much confined to high school girls he didn't really want his friends at school to see them yet. (Actually, although John hadn't noticed it, a lot of the younger sisters of the Forest Glen High girls had started wearing taps on their shoes too, and you could hear the click-click of taps even in the parts of the mall where the middle school kids hung out after their parents dropped them off.)

John knew that Brittney had a job working the cash register at Reed's Drug Store in the mall on Friday afternoons. So he was planning to walk into Reed's on Friday and see if she'd notice his taps. Meanwhile, he thought he'd better try out wearing his tapped-up boots, so Wednesday after school, he went home, changed into his harness boots and set out on a walk down on the highway that ran out of town. He thought he'd do a 4-mile circuit around the back side of town by the old tire factory. As he walked along Route 12, he could hear his plates going clip-clop, clip-clop—although the cars passing him along the highway made a lot more noise than he did. Still, he liked the sounds he was making with his boots, and when he reached the old factory parking area, away from the road, he loved the complete silence broken only by the clicking of his double horseshoe plates and the taps on the soles of his boots. As he began to feel more comfortable hearing all that noise coming from his boots, his steps became more emphatic, and he was walking with the pride and confidence that he normally displayed anyway. Sometimes he would purposely drag the heel of his boots across the cement so his horseshoe plate would make a "scrape-tap-clop" kind of sound. That made him smile.

On the way back into town, John was lost in his thoughts about his boots and how Brittney would react when she saw and heard the horseshoe plates when suddenly he realized he was at the corner of the block where Brittney lived with her parents and younger sister. What the hell, he thought. Why not? So he turned down her street and walked towards her house. As he approached the now-familiar house—he'd walked past quite a few times this year hoping to get a sight of her—he saw that Brittney was, in fact, standing in her driveway pacing up and down, taking deep inhales on a cigarette. As he got closer he could even hear her steps—metal taps, of course, announcing each one. Soon, Brittney noticed John approaching and she also noticed, with some surprise, the unmistakable sound of taps coming from his boots!

"John," Brittney cried out! "Is that you!!!! And what is it that I hear? Metal taps? What are you doing with taps on your boots?"

"Hi, Brittney," John replied. "Yeah, I got these over at Sam's yesterday. They're double-thick horseshoes on the heels and three pairs of #5 Eagles on the soles."

"Double horseshoes?" Brittney asked. "Let me see!"

So John stopped, leaned against the car parked in Brittney's driveway, and lifted up one boot so Brittney could see the metal taps.

"That's very cool. Are you going to put taps on all your other boots and shoes like I do," she asked? She was actually a little taken aback that John would have taps on his boots because she thought of them more as a girl thing, not as something high school guys would want to do. So when he replied "yeah, probably; I really like the sound they make," she was actually a little confused. She had to admit, she was a bit turned on by seeing those really large pieces of steel on her friend's boots. But on the other hand, she felt that big taps were her domain, and no boy was going to have better taps than hers! "Well, I'll bet you'll never make as much noise as I can make with my taps!" And she dragged her heels as hard as she could against the cement.

Unfortunately, though, on that day she couldn't compete with his horseshoe plates. She was wearing her soft soled white skimmer flats and their size 5 heel taps, even though covering the back part of the heel, still made a kind of tinny high-pitched sound, nothing like the commanding clack-clack John's harness boots had been making. She took a long drag on her cigarette and thought for a moment.

"Well, John, I guess I'm going to have to get some boots like that of my own and we'll see which of us can make the most noise walking down the hall at school. It will be interesting then, won't it? …Hey, you want to come inside for a bit?"

"Sure," said John. He was very curious about what Brittney's room looked like and he'd never met her family before.

"Just a second," said Brittney. "My dad doesn't like me to smoke in the house." So she took a couple of final drags on her cigarette and then put it out by stomping down with the soles of her shoes. John thought it was very sexy how Brittney did that.

John followed Brittney into her house, where he met Brittney's mom and dad and her younger sister Beth. John noticed that Beth was also sporting taps on her shoes.

As Brittney led John up the stairs to her room, Brittney's dad looked on from below.

"John!" called out Mr. Davis, noticing the unmistakable horseshoe taps on the boots climbing up the stairs in front of him. "Are you the one who got my two girls into wearing metal taps on their shoes?"

"No, Mr. Davis," replied John. "Actually it was Brittney who got me to put these plates on my boots!" John laughed. "I'm just trying to keep up with her!"

"That's funny," said Brittney's dad. "When Brittney's mom and I were in high school, most of us put taps on our shoes too. But it was the guys who put them on first. I had horseshoes just like the ones you have. It was only after Linda and I had been dating for awhile that Linda put some taps on her loafers and flats. To keep up with me, I guess." Mrs. Davis smiled, with some embarrassment.

"Not these days, Mr. Davis," said John. "Actually, I think I'm the first guy at Forest Glen to have taps on his shoes. It was Brittney who started this whole thing! We're just following her lead!"

Brittney led John into her bedroom and closed the door behind him. Before he could even look around to see what she had on her walls, Brittney put her hands on his face, drew herself up to him, and gave him a big long wet kiss. She wasn't quite sure why she did that. She knew it had something to do with his horseshoe taps, but whatever it was, she had an overwhelming need to come on to John. It seemed like that was the only thing that would put her in charge again. So she moved her hands up his cheek and began to stroke his long dark hair. Then, as she withdrew her lips from his she crouched down, and put her head in John's lap. She reached down with her left hand to grab one of John's boots, and felt under the boot for the cold steel plate that she'd just seen for the first time. She held the boot heel in her hand as she buried her head in John's lap.

It had all happened so suddenly, John could hardly think. He was dimly aware of the room, but mostly he was focused on Brittney, taking in mostly her gorgeous long blonde hair. (She looked so sexy! Especially, for some reason, when he could see her blonde hair's dark brown roots.) And with her legs bent back behind her he could see the silver metal taps covering the heels and toes of her soft white flats. He thought, "this must be all because of the taps on my boots. If horseshoe taps have that effect on Brittney they're worth wearing at school no matter what the guys will say."

After they'd relaxed awhile on the bed, John asked Brittney if she'd show him some of the other shoes she had with taps on them. So she brought out all her shoes. First there was the cowboy boots with the horseshoe taps that had started her fascination with wearing steel on the bottoms of her shoes. Then there were the penny loafers he'd seen plenty of times on her feet at school. They were brown Bass Weejuns with size 8 metal heel taps (the largest half-moons available) and some still substantial sized #5 taps under the toes. Next Brittney showed John her strappy beach sandals with the toe loop, sandals that had four pairs of taps on them: #6 on the heels and three pair of #4's on the soles. She loved these, she said, because she could just slide along making total tappy sounds. Then she brought out her three pairs of dressy shoes, some black chunky loafers with #7's on the heels and #4's on the toes; her knee-length black leather boots with #6 heel taps on those chunky heels that were popular a couple years back; and a pair of slingback sandals with #5's covering all of the 3-inch high heels and #3's on the toes ("smaller but not too small," she explained). And finally, she showed John another pair he'd seen plenty often, the first pair of shoes that she had had tapped at Sam's—her black loafers with the #7's on the heels and #3's on the toes.

"Very nice," said John, after he'd seen the whole display. "But my harness boots have bigger taps than any of yours. And they probably make more noise too!"

"OK, Mister Smarty Pants," pouted Brittney. "Just you wait. That may be the case now, but I promise, not for long!" And she took out a cigarette from the pack on her desk, lit it, took a long drag, and thought, "I don't care what my dad thinks. I'm going to smoke and drink, and do what I want with boys, and have monster double horseshoe taps on my boots. Maybe even triple thick ones! No way I'm going to let John have bigger taps than me!" Then she looked at John and smiled a knowing smile.


	6. Horseshoe Taps on Boots are Best

The next day at school, Britney couldn't get John's double-thick horseshoe taps out of her head. She knew that Ms Wilms, her English teacher, was giving some important instructions for the paper that was due next week, but she only dimly heard something about writing a story about an embarrassing experience you'd had. She figured she'd ask Ella later about how long the paper had to be—Ella always paid attention to Ms Wilms. Meanwhile, Brittney was thinking about going to the mall after school and buying some boots she could have double horseshoes put on. She just had to have tougher boots than John's, and her cowboy boots just wouldn't do it any more. Absentmindedly, she started stomping down with her heels on the floor under her seat—the huge #8 metal taps on her brown Bass Weejuns making louder clacks with each stomp on the floor. Pretty soon even Ms Wilms, who seemed not to notice almost anything going on in class, stopped in mid-sentence.

"Miss Davis," she called out. "Would you please stop making all that noise?"

"I'm sorry, Ms Wilms," Brittney replied in a rather sassy voice. "It's just these metal taps on my shoes that I put on so my heels would stop wearing down."

The whole class burst into laughter. The thought of Brittney having taps put on her shoes to stop wearing down her heels was just too much for everyone to take.

"Don't believe her, Ms Wilms," said Barry. "She puts taps on her shoes because she wants to make loud, clacky sounds so that everyone will notice her."

"Shut up, Barry," Brittney called out. "You're such a weeny! You'd never put taps on your shoes. You're such a chicken, if you had taps on you'd be afraid of the sound of your own shoes walking down the hall!"

More laughter from the class.

Ms Wilms broke in. "All right. Enough already," she said. "I haven't finished telling you about next week's writing assignment." And she continued describing the paper requirements, despite the fact that almost no one, except Ella, was listening.

That little verbal exchange had all kinds of ramifications, though. Barry Browne, the boy who started the ruckus, started thinking about what Britney said, about his being too chicken to put taps on his shoes. He made a mental note to ask Sam the shoe man about having taps put on his oxfords. Meanwhile, in the back of Ms Wilms' mind appeared a fleeting memory of her own past—about 7 or 8 years ago, in college, when she too had worn metal taps on her flats and loafers. She recalled that back then she was one of the only girls who did that, but now it seemed like nearly every one of the girls in her classes was walking into school with metal taps on their shoes, click-clicking on the tile floors.

English was Brittney's last class before lunch. As soon as the bell rang, she jumped out of her seat and was the first one out of the classroom. She ran over to the room down the hall where she knew her good friend Barbi would be coming out of her 11th grade history class. Barbi soon came through the door with another friend, Jessica, both girls chattering and clicking along with noticeably metallic taps on their loafers, just like Brittney's. The three girls usually met for lunch over behind the technology classes, the one place where kids were allowed to smoke. Today, though, Brittney had a different plan.

"Hey Barb, Jess. Hey you guys, I want to go over to Western Outfitters and buy some harness boots, the kind with the metal rings on them. Jessica, will you drive me over there?"

"But we'll never make it back before sixth period," Jessica replied.

"So what!" exclaimed Barbi. "I hate Mr. Wilson's trig class. Come on, Jess, let's go!"

Since Jessica was the only one with a car at school that day, her response would be critical. Jessica thought for a second. "OK, I'm in." And the three girls raced off to the student lot, the silver metal taps on their shoes visible as they ran, click-clacking along the cement. Reaching the car, a GT convertible that Jessica's parents had bought for her, they climbed in, Brittney in back directing the show. Convertible top put down, makeup checked, cigarettes lit, Jessica and the girls peeled out of the lot, escaping the torture of their school for the open road, smiling and chattering, all three of them with long bright blonde hair shining in the sunshine and blowing in the wind.

When they got to the mall, it was pretty empty of customers. But they got plenty of stares anyway. A group of several older women looked at the girls as they clicked past them, muttering about what these girls were doing away from school. A handful of male store managers oogled the girls as they passed their nearly empty stores--three luscious high school babes in their skin-tight pants, tapped-up brown loafers, and blouses tied above their waists so their pierced belly-button jewelry would show. Vaguely aware of the attention they were getting, the girls made their way over to the food court, munched down some pizza, and then crossed over to Western Outfitters. The three of them sauntered inside, their taps clicking loudly on the tile floor, and while Brittney walked directly over to the display of harness and biker boots, the other girls wandered over to examine some other boots on display nearby.

"Hey Barb, look at these white cowgirl boots," called out Jessica. Barbi came over to look.

"Those are majorette boots, dummy," she said. "But they do look nice. Hey Brittney, look at these!" Brittney looked over to the white boots Barbi was raising in the air.

"Cool!" she replied. Britney only half paid attention at this point, being fully engaged in trying to pick out a style of boots that would be tough enough for double horseshoe taps and that didn't have those awful deeply treaded heels that taps wouldn't bind to.

Soon, she came up with a pair that she liked—with the metal ring at the side of the ankle, smooth brown leather all over, and hard rubber over wood heels that would be perfect for horseshoe taps. They were men's boots, but she already knew her size equivalent in men's shoes—11 women's, 9 1/2 mens—so she picked out a box from the shelf and tried them on. She stared at the bottoms and imagined what they'd be like with steel taps covering most of the heel and sole. Just thinking about walking around school with all that metal under her was getting her excited. She pictured John Baker dropping his jaw in awe when he saw her.

Meanwhile, each of the other girls had also picked out a pair of boots. Jessica had decided on the white majorette boots, and Barbi had gone for a pair of black women's cowboy boots with silver and red stitching up the 10" shaft and tapered 2" stacked leather heels. Although each pair of boots cost between $50 and $150, the girls cheerfully offered up their dads' credit cards--they were all still under their limit this month--and marched out of the store, boxes in hand.

You'd think that they'd want to wear their new boots from the start, but when Jessica suggested that they do that, Brittney replied, "NO WAY! They don't have taps on them yet." And the others agreed that it wouldn't be right to wear them even for a moment without taps. So they ran back to Jessica's car and headed for Sam's Shoe Repair.

Sam was in back, eating a sandwich, but when he heard the girls coming, he came forward to meet them as they entered.

"Hi Sam," said Brittney. "We just came from buying these new boots." And all three girls held up their boxes, and began to empty them of their contents. "We want taps on them."

Sam smiled. "I suppose you want some little half-moon taps like these?" And he held up some very dainty looking plastic taps about an inch long.

Everyone laughed.

"You know that's not our style, Sam!" replied Brittney. "John Baker showed me the double horseshoes you put on his Engineer boots. I want some on these new harness boots too. But I want them to be louder than his."

"OK, sure, let me think how to do that." Sam brought out two horseshoe taps and some nails. "I can put the double horseshoes on like this. See, I can put the back two nails through just the bottom tap. The top tap will bind to the heels from the front four nails. That way they'll stay on but make more noise than usual."

"Awesome! And I want toe and side taps, too."

"Of course. I've got some special toe taps I can put on these boots, the kind with a big lip that goes over the edge of the sole, so they'll be really visible from the front. They're called toe bumpers."

Brittney kept smiling. "Cool. You know I'd like those. How come you didn't mention them to me before!" She couldn't wait to see the toe bumpers and double horseshoes on her boots. Sam turned to Barbi.

"Now what kind of taps would you like on these cowgirl boots, young lady?" Sam asked.

"Well, I've never had horseshoe taps on my shoes before, but I think they might be nice on these new boots, wouldn't they?"

"Yes," Sam reassured her. "Horseshoes would be fine on these beautiful boots. Do you want singles or doubles like I'm putting on Brittney's? I'd recommend double horseshoes because the heels are so tapered."

"Well, ok," Barbi said cautiously. "If you think that double ones would be better. But maybe I shouldn't have taps on the soles."

"Nonsense," said Sam. "There's no point having taps on the heels and not putting them on the soles too. Look, I'll put them just on the toes and we can save the side taps for later when you get used to the boots." Barbi nodded her o.k. Sam turned to Jessie. "Now for these majorette boots, I have some special taps called Continentals. They used to be put on tap dancing shoes but majorettes also had them on their boots. They're aluminum, though, not steel like the others." Sam showed Jessie two Continental taps—heel taps made in the shape that would cover the entire heel and toe taps that had a big lip like the toe bumpers but were much larger.

Jessie thought for a moment. "Gee, Sam, I don't know. I think I'd like to have horseshoes on my boots just like Brittney and Barbi. Maybe the Continental taps would be alright on the toes though."

"OK," replied Sam. "I will do it that way. Now you girls just sit down and make yourselves comfortable while I go to work on these boots."

The girls looked at their watches. It was already into the middle of sixth period. If they timed it just right, they could get back to school at the start of 7th period, the one time of the day all three girls were in the same class.

After they'd been sitting for about 10 minutes, hearing Sam pounding nails into all of their boots, a 30'ish well dressed woman with medium-length pale blonde hair came into the store. Sam stopped and came forward to serve her.

"How can I help you today, Mrs. Johnson?" Sam asked.

Mrs. Johnson opened up the shoe box she was carrying and pulled out a pair of 4 inch high black patent stiletto pumps.

"Sam. Look at the heels on these shoes. I've worn them only three times and already the rubber heel tip is worn half-way down. Can you replace these with something that would wear longer, like plastic or something?"

"Well, Mrs. Johnson. I could give you plastic heel tips. But if you want them to really last a long time, I would recommend these steel spike tips." And he brought out one to show her. "They also have another advantage that these girls could tell you about!" Sam laughed and pointed to Brittney and her friends.

Brittney was following this conversation with interest. She had had a pair of spike heels before, but didn't wear them more than a few times before she outgrew them. And that was before she'd discovered metal taps. So when she heard Sam's last comment about the advantage of steel heel tips, she instinctively stomped down with each of her loafers making a loud clack-clack, and then raised one of her shoes up so Mrs. Johnson could see the large metal tap on the bottom.

"Oh, I see!" said Mrs. Johnson. "Yes, I think I'd like the steel kind then." Mrs. Johnson then looked down at the shoes she was wearing—some brown business loafers with chunky 2" heels. "You know," she continued, "seeing those metal cleats on that girl's loafers…I think I'd like to put some on the heels of these shoes. Can you do that now, while I wait?"

Sam looked over at the girls. "Well if you can wait a few minutes I can. I'm finishing with some boots that these girls gave me to repair."

Brittney quickly checked her watch and then interrupted. "That's o.k., Sam. You can do the lady's shoes first. We have to wait for the next change of classes before we go back to school anyway." So Sam queried Mrs. Johnson and she nodded, slipped off her loafers, and gave them to Sam.

"What size cleats do you want on these, Mrs. Johnson?" He showed her a wooden board that had one tap in each size he carried, from a size 000 that was barely visible up to the huge 8's that Brittney had on her loafers. The three girls snickered, figuring that Mrs. Johnson would pick out some small ones, like #0 or #1, that might seem lady-like on dressy shoes.

"How about these, Sam?" she asked, pointing to the #6s on the board. "Would they fit on these heels? I'd like to make really sure that I don't need to replace the heels on these shoes."

"Yes, I think I can squeeze those on. Have a seat." And Sam motioned towards the sofa where there was a seat next to Brittney.

Mrs. Johnson sat down and smiled at Brittney. Brittney had already sized her up as a career woman who always tried to look her best, the kind who had her hair colored every week so her roots wouldn't show. Brittney thought of her own hair and how it had been almost two months since she'd had a coloring job. But she liked having her dark roots show; she never could understand why women tried to avoid letting people see that they colored their hair. It was so obvious anyway! She could see that Mrs. Johnson's roots were dark, even though the platinum blonde color was still pretty close to her skin.

Mrs. Johnson broke the silence. "So what are you girls having done to your boots?" she asked of none of them in particular. Jessica was the first to reply. "We're having taps put on them, just like you," she said.

"Oh, 'taps' is what you call them, huh? I always thought they were called 'cleats'."

"We call them 'taps,' said Barbi. Only the kind we're having put on are horseshoes. They're bigger than the ones you picked out. They go all around the edge of the heel, like this." And Barbi brought up her loafers, her #6 heel taps visible, and drew the U-curve on her heels showing where the horseshoe taps would be placed.

"Wow. Those must be loud!" said Mrs. Johnson. "Maybe I'll try those sometime, but I think the ones I picked out will be just right." And then she lowered her voice and whispered to the girls (perhaps so Sam couldn't hear). "I said something to Sam about keeping my heels in good repair, but honestly I want those taps on so I can be heard when I walk around the office. I've got a hunch that having taps on my shoes will be useful for getting things done my way, just like when I wear spike heels."

Just then Sam reappeared with Mrs. Johnson's loafers. She looked at the taps, which were so large on these chunky heels that they were angled along the sides and went all the way from the back to the front outside edge of the heels. She held them up so Jessica could see them and said, "Hmm, kind of like two-thirds of a horseshoe, huh?" Then she put them on her feet and made a stomp on the floor. "They sound good, too!" she said. "Thanks, Sam." Then she remembered the stilettos she had brought in with her. But Sam had already done his work on these. He brought her black pumps out, and showed them to Mrs. Johnson: a nice shiny silver metal tip on each heel.

"These will be just perfect! Thank you, Sam!"

After Mrs. Johnson had left, it was only another couple of minutes and Sam started bringing out the girls' boots. One by one, they excitedly ran their hands over the bright new steel undersides and slid their feet into them. First Brittney's brown harness boots with the double horseshoes, toe bumpers, and—count them—three taps on each side of the sole! Then while Brittney was busily lacing them up, out came Barbi's beautiful cowgirl boots, also with double horseshoes that stuck out a little over the edge so they could be noticed under the tapered heel. ("Is that o.k. that they stick out," she inquired of Brittney? "Of course, silly—that's even better!") And, finally, the white majorette boots for Jessica, complete with horseshoes, Continental toe taps, and #3 side taps too! ("The side taps are a little bonus for you," said Sam.)

"Yikes," shouted Barbi. "It's almost 2 o'clock! We better get back!"

So they hurriedly paid Sam for the taps ($2 for each girl: "Special price for Forest Glen girls," said Sam), stuffed their old loafers into the shoe boxes the boots came in, and ran off to Jessica's car. The new taps caused all of them to slip once or twice, but they shook it off and reveled in the metallic sounds they made as they sprinted along the sidewalk.

They jumped into the car ("Careful with those taps! Don't scratch my paint!" said Jessica, only half-joking), and she floored the engine, put it into gear, and took off with tires squealing. It was only a few blocks to school, but at one point she hit 40 on the speedometer. The girls were just so excited by what they had on their feet, they couldn't wait to get back to school. And just as they pulled into the parking lot, the bell rang for last period classes to start.

The three girls raced through the lot and over to their computer class where kids were still just settling into their seats in front of their PCs. But when the three of them walked into the room, boots stomping on the floor, everyone turned and saw them beaming. Each of them walked towards her seat—clack-click, scrape-clomp, clackity-clickity-click—and all eyes were glued to their boots and to what could be seen underneath them.

The girls in the class were in awe. A lot of them had taps on their shoes too, but nothing like these huge horseshoe plates, toe bumpers, and side taps. But it was the boys who were dumbfounded. These three blondes were already pretty hot in their eyes. But coming in with their navels showing (they'd totally forgotten to untie their blouses and tuck them in their pants), and these brand new stomping boots on their feet, they could not get their peckers to relax! Three or four of them were sitting on their hands—probably to prevent themselves from jacking off in public!

And for one guy in the class, this parade of females had special meaning. When the girls had reached their seats, John Baker looked over at Brittney, motioned for her to raise her foot so he could see her taps, and then shook his head from side to side when he saw what she showed him—horseshoe tap, toe bumper and three more half-moon taps along each sides of the boot sole. Brittney pointed to the horseshoe. "Double," she called over to John. "Plus a secret extra thing to make them even louder." He shook his head once more. Brittney was definitely in charge again.


	7. The Goth Girls Get Taps

The students in Brittney's computer class were favorably impressed by the three pairs of boots and their steel-bottomed accessories that paraded into class that Wednesday afternoon. After all, most of the girls and now a few of the boys at Forest Glen had started to wear metal taps on their shoes too. So these horseshoed and sole-tapped western and harness boots were simply the leading edge of the fad that most of them were enjoying being part of themselves.

Still, maybe a third of the girls at that point had not yet put taps on their shoes. Some of the girls wanted to but they were still under their parents' thumbs—parents who, for one reason or another, didn't want their precious Emily to make the clicky sounds with their walk that the other girls were having so much fun making. A lot of the others were simply too shy to want to draw attention to themselves. Social development proceeds at different rates in different people, and some of the girls were just into reading books or doing artwork or writing poetry more than they were into having an active social life. Then there were the senior girls. By and large, the 12th grade girls didn't pay much attention to taps—they were already scouting marines and cute college guys, and they had other means of drawing attention to themselves, especially the ones who could pass for 18 and make some money having photos and videos taken of themselves sucking cum out of guys' dicks.

But included among the non-tap-wearing minority of girls, there were a few who weren't shy, whose parents didn't manage their lives, and who weren't into having sex in front of a camera. These were the goths—20 to 30 angry young girls who were into black clothes, dark makeup, and heavy platform boots with thick rubber soles. You might think this group would be into taps too—after all, heavy metal rock and steel chains are part of the goth scene—but the one thing that most described these girls was hostility. They didn't like the happy-go-lucky persona that Brittney and her friends had. They thought of life as way too serious for joy-riding in cars. And maybe most importantly, several of these girls—one Caroline Tooley in particular—were quite jealous of Brittney's constantly being the center of attention.

At the end of 7th period that Wednesday, Brittney started to walk out of class, excited to be able to show off her new double-horseshoed harness boots to all her friends. Caroline was still sitting in front of her computer, right at the back of the class. Just as Brittney passed by, Caroline did what can only be described as a stupid, adolescent boys' trick—she stuck her platform-sole-booted foot right in front of Brittney's path, causing Brittney to trip over her leg, and fall ignominiously to the floor, backpack flying, horseshoe taps scraping along the floor and feet, boots, and taps flailing wildly in the air. But no sooner had Brittney hit the floor than she was up on her feet, hands lunging for Caroline, who at that point was trying to pretend that nothing had happened. Brittney grabbed Caroline with both hands, pulled her out of her chair and threw her to the floor. Then, realizing that she had some powerful new tools at her disposal—her steel-plated boots—Brittney raised her left leg and gave Caroline a quick kick with the steel toe-bumper now conveniently attached to her boot. Then she stomped down on Caroline's thigh with the full force of her double-horseshoed heel. It took several of Brittney's friends, grabbing from behind, to pull her off of Caroline and start to calm the two girls down. Brittney and Caroline separated, each one glaring hatefully at the other.

Needless to say, the cat-fight between Brittney and Caroline was the talk of the school that afternoon and into the next day. Everyone had lots of ideas for Brittney on how to get back at Caroline, but Brittney had decided on her own plan. She had one other class period with Caroline—her 2nd period physical fitness class. For that class, everyone had to change into shorts, t-shirts, and sneakers. Brittney decided that was just what she needed—access to Caroline's goth uniform—her boots in particular. Of course, she'd have a very difficult time getting close enough to Caroline's open locker without her being seen. But that's what friends are for, right?

That night Brittney was on the phone almost all evening.

"Hey, Molly," Brittney whispered into her phone. "Isn't your locker right next to Caroline Tooley's? …. Good. I need you to do something for me…. I'll get you anything you want from Reed's…makeup, hair color, anything, if you can do this favor for me…. This is what I want you to do…."

"Hey, Jess," called out Brittney after dialing Barbi's friend. "Will you have your car at school tomorrow?… Yeah, I know you have a math test 2nd period, but could you let me have the keys for just 30 minutes?… Yeah, so?… I know that…. I can't get my license for another 18 months, but I've driven a car lots of times before…. A stick? Yeah, I can, I've driven a stick… Shit! That is so not friendly!… Barbi? O.k., shit, I'll call her myself."

In the morning, Brittney got ready for school extra carefully. She showered and took a long time brushing her hair so it would look extra nice. She applied her makeup with great concentration. Then she thought about what to wear. It was getting too warm for jeans and they couldn't wear shorts at school until May 15th—and anyway she wanted to look at least 16 that day in case a cop happened by. She settled on a blue skirt, white blouse, and her knee-length black leather boots with large but lady-like-sounding #6 metal heel taps. She skipped breakfast, but after she drinking most of a cup of coffee, she smoked a cigarette in her room (thank God for air fresheners) and then one more as she clicked her way off to school.

As 2nd period started, she went to meet her friend Barbi who was waiting for her by the entrance to the girl's locker room, where Barbi had just finished her gym class.

"Hey Brit. Hurry. I've got to meet Jess before the math test. She was going to hide her notes in the 2nd floor bathroom, and she said she'd show me where she was going to put them. Here are the keys," said Barbi. "My parents will KILL me if you mess up. I mean you're only 14. Even Jess wouldn't let you drive her car."

"No worries, Barbi. I've driven lots of times. Jess was just flipped out because I'm still learning to drive a stick."

"Good luck, sweetie!" shouted Barbi as she raced away to meet her friend.

Once inside the locker room, Brittney's next goal was to discretely hide away until Molly could find her and deliver her the "booty." She'd agreed to meet Molly in the 2nd stall in the bathroom. She went inside the stall and waited. Seconds passed, then minutes. Girls came tapping in to use the bathroom, chattered together and left to get into their gym outfits. But no Molly.

Finally, a knock on the stall door. Brittney rushed to open it. There, staring her in the face was…not Molly but an angry-looking Caroline, holding up her heavy black rubber-soled platform boots for Britney to see.

"Hey, Brat-knee. Your little slave Mollydolly said you wanted to borrow these. I know what you have in mind, you slutface. Go fuckyourself."

Caroline raised one of her boots towards Brittney in a threatening way. Brittney was totally scared. There she was, squeezed into a toilet stall with her backside right in front of the open toilet seat, facing an angry goth of a girl who she'd just stomped on with her steel heel plate the afternoon before.

"Hold off, Caroline." Brittney tried to stall for time until perhaps someone would walk in. But that was getting unlikely since from the sounds she could hear, nearly all of the girls were already in the fitness room. She realized she needed to try a whole new tack.

"Yeah, I wanted to take your boots in to the shoe repair to have taps put on them. But it's not what you think. It's not to get back at you…. Actually, I think the goth look is cool, and you really do look awesome in your black pants and shirt and shoes. And I love that purple dye in your hair."

Caroline didn't say anything, so Brittney kept going.

"It's just that I think that the goth look would be even better if you had really monster-sized steel horseshoe taps on your boots. I could never have just come right out and said that to you cuz you'd probably just have laughed at me. But you've got me in a corner—literally—and I've got no choice but to be straight with you! Honest, I think you'd love having taps on your boots if you'd just give it a try."

Caroline took all this in, and surprisingly in an open kind of way. She recalled yesterday afternoon's altercation and how Brittney used her steel-toed and steel-heeled boots with dramatic (and painful) effect. "You know, I might just like having all that steel on my boots. I could bust you 10 times better next time," she said. "So what do you want to do, Brat-knee?"

"Well, how 'bout this? You don't really want to go in to the gym now anyway, do you? Why don't we both go over to Sam's Shoe Repair and you and Sam can talk it out? He's a really cool guy, and once you hear it from him about how cool it is having metal taps on, I think you'll go for them. And if you decide not to have them on your boots, well, we'll have had a fun time away from class anyway. Besides, I've got a car and it won't take us any time at all to get over there and back."

"You've got a car? No shit? Are you 16? You're just a freshman aren't you? Did you have to repeat some grades?"

"Well," replied Brittney. "Actually I've got the keys for Barbi Barnett's parents' car. She loaned them to me. And, no, I never repeated a grade. I'm 14 but my parents let me drive." The last statement wasn't quite true since her parents never even knew that she'd taken her mom's car twice and drove it to the mall with her friends, or that several boys she'd gone out with had let her drive their cars on occasion.

"Hmmm," thought Caroline aloud. "Well, shit, I never thought I'd agree to this…and I may not let you do that anyway, but, o.k., I'll go over there with you to check out these taps you're so hot on."

So, the two girls, enemies less than 24 hours earlier, walked together out of the bathroom and out of the gym, Brittney in her dressy outfit and chunky heel boots, Caroline still dressed in her gym uniform and carrying her black goth boots. In two minutes, they were onto the parking lot and Brittney had spotted Barbi's parents old Ford sedan.

"You want me to drive," asked Caroline? "At least I have a learner's."

"No," replied Brittney. "I borrowed the keys; I'd better drive." Umm, you want a cigarette?"

"Sure," said Caroline. "Thanks," and she took one from the open pack of Marlboro Lights that Brittney offered her. The two girls lit their cigarettes, and Brittney started the car. Off they went, the 1/2 mile into the center of town and then over to Sam's Shoe Repair.

"Hey, you made it without running into anything!" Caroline commented only half-joking, when they'd reached the little parking lot down the block from the shoe repair. Brittney did manage to drive the car there in one piece (at least she didn't have to try to parallel park!), but it was pretty clear she was not very experienced behind the wheel. Caroline added, "When we're done at the shoe shop, I think I'll **walk** back to school."

Brittney thought to herself, "Fuck off, you bitch." But she realized that she'd better not make Caroline angry at her since this was her only way to get taps on her shoes, now that she'd blown her original plan. "Damn that Molly," she thought. "Why did she let Caroline catch her grabbing her shoes? Or did she even _try_ to take them?" Anyway, that was spilled milk. She had a mission to accomplish right here and now.

As the girls reached Sam's shop, they each took one last drag on their cigarette before putting it out on the sidewalk in front of the shop. Caroline noticed that Brittney stomped hers out noisily with the metal-tapped heel of her boot rather than squishing it with the sole. That looked tough, she thought.

They walked inside and the door closed behind them. Sam came out to greet them.

"Brittney, you're back so soon?" Sam asked. "Wasn't it just yesterday I put those horseshoe taps on your harness boots. Is anything wrong with them?"

"No,they're fine, Sam. We're here because I'm trying to convince Caroline to put some on her own boots." Sam smiled at Caroline and gave her a quick once-over. Caroline stared back without so much as a hint of a smile.

As Brittney started talking to Sam again about why they were here, all of a sudden Caroline had a sinking feeling. She thought, "What the fuck am I doing here? Why did I ever agree to come here with that stupid 9th grader, Brat-knee?" Suddenly, Caroline did a 180-degree turn and started to rush towards the door.

But she wasn't fast enough. From behind the counter, Sam pushed a button, and the door automatically locked. Caroline didn't notice what had happened; she just saw that she was having trouble turning the door handle. At the same time, Brittney turned and lunged for her.

"Stop, Caroline!" Brittney called out. "Remember, you said you'd let Sam talk to you about wearing taps."

"Ladies," shouted Sam. "Calm down! What is the matter here?"

Caroline turned towards Sam and started talking non-stop. "This is her big idea. I just came along to humor her. She and I don't really get along. In fact we had a big fight yesterday." And then came the coup d'grace: "She and her taps are just so preppy!"

Caroline turned towards Brittney and continued. "You and your friends think you're such hot stuff. You make all that noise walking around in those taps, and all the kids look at you and that makes you think everyone wants to be like you. Well some of us don't want to be like you at all! We think the world's fucked up and you preppies are just a part of it."

Brittney didn't understand. "Preppy?" she replied. "You call the horseshoe taps on those harness boots and on Barbi's cowboy boots 'preppy'? Preppy's like being all sweet and nice with the teachers and doing all your homework and stuff. We're not like that!"

Then she thought about all the girls who were like that—girls who were social like herself, but who weren't rebellious in any way—and thought to herself, "gee, that's right, the preppy girls _**are**_ also wearing taps on their shoes." Then she said to Caroline: "Well, maybe _**some**_ girls who wear taps are preppy, but not me and my friends."

Caroline had one more retort. "Well, you're preppy because all your boots are brand new. Look at the boots you have on." She pointed at Brittney's knee-high leather fashion boots. "They must have cost $200!"

Suddenly, Brittney understood. "Caroline's anger must have come from thinking other kids look down on her because she doesn't have the money to buy fancy clothes and electronic gear like we do," Brittney thought to herself. So the goth style was really about rejecting a popularity contest that they couldn't win. Now it made more sense.

Meanwhile, Sam was taking this in and he vaguely understood what was going on. He thought this was a good time to change the subject.

"Pardon me for interrupting," he said, "but maybe I should tell you something about how taps got started among teenagers 50 years ago. Can I tell you about that?"

Brittney said, excitedly, "Sure, Sam, I'd like to know." Sam looked at Caroline. She shrugged her shoulders, which suggested that she had very little enthusiasm for this topic but she would go along anyway.

"Well," he began. "When our army guys got back from World War II, they brought back their boots and boots from the German soldiers they'd beaten. A lot of the boots—especially the ones from Britain and Germany—had steel horseshoe taps on them and big metal toe plates. Soon, American shoe repair shops started getting requests for horseshoe taps, so a couple of companies that had made smaller taps during the war that people put on their shoes for economizing on shoe leather started making the larger horseshoe taps too. By the 1950's, the idea of wearing horseshoe taps had been taken up by angry teenage boys all over the country—they were called 'juvenile delinquents' back then—you've heard of them?"

The girls nodded.

"Those boys didn't like school. They didn't feel respected by their teachers or by other students. And they had a lot of emotions built up inside of them that were trying to get out. By putting these huge steel plates on their boots, they could make a lot of noise, get some respect from other kids, and get out their anger and hostility at the same time. Not only did they become top stuff among teenagers, but their styles—like duck-tail haircuts, black leather jackets, and t-shirts with cigarette packs stuffed under the sleeves—became copied by all kinds of teenagers, from tough-guy wannabees all the way, eventually, to the preppies. And trying to be like their boyfriends, the delinquents' girlfriends started putting taps on their shoes too, and then other girls copied them just like with the boys. So by the 1960's all kinds of kids were putting metal taps on their shoes—horseshoes, half-moon taps, anything that made noise. But it was the angry kids who started it and who got the most out of it."

After Sam stopped for a moment both girls were silent. Then Brittney spoke up. "See, Caroline. Taps were really invented by goths! Except that they didn't know they were goths!"

Caroline thought for a moment more. Then she spoke up directly to Sam. "Maybe Brat-knee's right. Maybe I _would_ like to have taps on my boots. I already told her they'd be helpful to me for kicking her harder next time we fight." (She gave Brittney a sideways glance.) "Can you put taps on these platform boots?"

"Sure can," Sam replied. "Any kind of taps you want."

Caroline thought about how much money this would set her back. She had only $5 on her. "What kind can you put on for $5?"

"Don't you worry about the cost, miss," said Sam. "I won't charge you a thing. Just show me where you want the taps and what size."

"Well," said Caroline, "if they won't cost me anything, then I'd like to have on the same kinds of taps that you put on Brittney's boots—the ones she was wearing yesterday when she paraded into computer class all full of herself."

Brittney explained to Sam: "Those were the harness boots you put on yesterday—the ones with double horseshoes, toe bumpers, and three side taps on each side."

"Sounds fine," said Caroline. "I can't wait for our next fight!" she continued, although this time with a little smile on her face and twinkle in her eye. She was warming up to taps, and to Brittney.

While Sam went to the back of his shop to work on Caroline's boots, Caroline sat down and untied her gym sneakers so she'd be ready to wear her platform boots as soon as Sam had put the taps on. Brittney sat down next to her, but decided to keep quiet so she wouldn't mess this up. The two girls listened while Sam hammered in the taps into the soles and heels—a sound that was now quite familiar to Brittney but a new one to Caroline.

Pretty soon Sam came out and showed off his work. He pointed to the double horseshoe taps. "On Brittney's I took out a couple of the nails to make the taps louder. But with these rubber heels, you don't need that. They will be plenty loud just like they are. Also, I just put on a single side tap on each side of the sole—he pointed to the size 4 half-moon taps—for the same reason. I can put on more there any time you want, but I think you'll like them this way."

Caroline took her boots over to the sofa, and took a second look at the taps. "Hey, what are these?" she asked Brittney, pointing to the toe taps that bent around showing a 1/2 inch of metal along the front edge of the platform sole.

"Oh, those are toe-bumpers," Brittney said. "Sam put them on my harness boots yesterday, too."

"The bumper looks cool!" said Caroline, starting to lace up her boots. "I like how the metal comes around to the top." She stomped her heels down on the floor and the double horseshoe taps made a very metallic sound, different than what she heard when Brittney walked in her hollow-heeled dress boots with smaller half-moon taps. The volume of sound they made made her jump a bit.

She turned to Sam. "If I decide I don't like the horseshoes, can I bring them back and get you to take them off?"

"Of course," said Sam. "I can take them off any time you want, and then if you change your mind again, I can put them on again. Anything you want. Come over any time. Bring any of your other shoes or boots, and I'll put taps on them too. No charge, ever, for you, honey!" Sam really loved it when these high school sweeties came into his store to put taps on their shoes. He frankly didn't mind doing this, and whatever the taps cost him was certainly worth it to him.

So the two girls walked out of the shop and back to Barbi's parents' car, both of them clickety-clicking with every step (though Caroline's sounds were much louder). Caroline's attitudes towards taps and towards Brittney were changing rapidly. She totally forget her plan to walk back to school because of Brittney's driving. She was intent on listening to her taps on the sidewalk and imagining how they would fit into her goth world. Soon she'd learn that they fit in quite well. Within two weeks, every other goth girl at school would have horseshoe taps on her boots and their noise-making would dwarf the sounds made by Brittney and her "preppy" and "not-so-preppy" friends.

The differences between Brittney and her friends and Caroline and hers soon started to recede. Both groups of girls had similarly disdainful attitudes towards school; both groups liked to cut class, smoke, and get stoned and drunk; both groups overdid their makeup and hair, at least by adult standards; and both groups made the noisiest sounds they could while walking around— especially at school and in any public place where they could see and be seen. Taps had made these former enemies come together—they were now all part of the same teen scene.


	8. A Surprise for Barry

Just as Brittney's wearing taps on her shoes and boots started the fad among the girls, after John Baker had come into school for a week straight wearing his double-horseshoed harness boots, other guys made their way over to Sam's Shoe Repair to get taps put on their own boots and shoes. Even though most girls had the smaller half-moon shaped taps on their shoes, most of the boys asked Sam for horseshoes for theirs. Only when Sam ran out of the horseshoes did guys put up with the half-moon taps, but even then they almost all picked the largest ones, numbers 7 or 8, that Sam had in stock. Along with toe taps and taps on the sides of their soles, the guys soon were making more noise with their taps than the girls did. Plus, they were more into making sparks and running and sliding down the hallway floors, their taps acting like skates on ice.

Of course, just as with the girls, not every guy was willing to be so brazen in their walk. Barry Browne, the boy in Brittney's English class who Brittney had called a "weeny" because he'd be too shy to put taps on his shoes, had thought long and hard about having taps on his shoes. But as more and more boys began to put taps on their shoes, he decided he'd go over to Sam's with his pair of black oxfords that his mom had just bought him and see if Sam could put some taps on that wouldn't be too loud.

"Hello, Mr. DiMaggio," said Barry as he walked tentatively into the shoe repair store.

"Hello, son, what can I do for you?" asked Sam.

Barry paused for more than a few seconds. Sam guessed why.

"Let me guess," said Sam. "You've seen all your friends start to put metal taps on their shoes, and you're wondering if you should do so too."

Barry stood there in amazement. "How did you guess?"

Sam replied: "Well, I've been in this business for so long and I've dealt with teenagers for so long, I pretty much know what they want when they come in here. And now it's taps. For everyone."

"Well, yes, I guess I want some too, but not so big as the ones John and Brittney and the others have. Just some maybe an inch across."

Sam showed him some taps that were about that size. "If you want those, o.k., but you might as well not have any taps at all on your shoes. No one will even hear them, not even yourself! Why don't you try some like these?" And Sam showed him some size 5's that were about 2 inches across. "Those will be fine on the shoes you've got on now."

So Barry took off his shoes, and gave them to Sam to have taps put on. "Can you put some on the front, too, under the toes?" Sam nodded, smiled at Barry, and without a word, took Barry's shoes and walked to back to get down to work.

As Barry turned to sit down, he suddenly noticed that there was already a patron in Sam's store, waiting on the sofa to have her shoes repaired, most likely. When the woman looked up, Barry's face flushed bright red. It was Ms Wilms, his English teacher! He was so embarrassed that Ms. Wilms saw that he was here to put taps on his shoes—and after he had complained about the noise that Brittney had been making with her taps in class!

"Hello, Barry," said Ms Wilms. "I see you're joining the tap parade too!"

"Well, yyyyea, I guess so," Barry stammered, his face getting red again.

"No need to be embarrassed about putting taps on your shoes, Barry," said Ms Wilms. "After all, that's why I'm here too!"

"Really?" Barry exclaimed. "You're going to put taps on your shoes, too?"

"Well, Barry, when you and Brittney got into that argument earlier this week about the taps on her shoes, I remembered that I'd had metal taps on my shoes back when I was in college. I suddenly realized that I missed hearing those nice clickety-click sounds that they make so I thought I'd put some on my own shoes and that might help everyone feel better about wearing taps."

"Gosh, Ms Wilms. If you're putting taps on your shoes, then I guess it must be ok for me to do that too."

Just then Sam came back with both of their shoes—Barry's oxfords with #5 taps on the heels and #3 on the toes and a pair of dressy navy blue hard-sole oxfords for Ms Wilms with even bigger taps on hers--#7s on the heels and #5s on the toes.

"Gee, Ms Wilms. Those are pretty big taps on your shoes. Did you want them to be that large?"

"Oh, sure. I thought I'd better keep up with the kids in my class. And they're just a little larger than the ones I used to put on my shoes in college. "

As Ms Wilms turned and dropped her oxfords to the floor, her newly #7-tapped shoes made a noisy clang as they hit the cement. Then, as she slid her feet into them, the shoes made a noticeable scraping sound on the floor. Both Barry and Sam were now totally focused on this attractive young woman and her dressy navy oxfords with the large metal heel and toe plates whose edges were clearly visible even when flat on the floor. Watching her every move, they stared at her while she carefully laced up her shoes, stood up, brushed herself off, and, with a final wave of her hand called out, "'Bye Barry, 'bye Sam!"

"Bye, Ms Wilms," they replied in unison. They listened to her click her way out onto the sidewalk, and watched her cross the street, her pretty face beaming, walking very authoritatively, clearly happy to have metal taps on her shoes once again.

Barry then turned to Sam. "Mr. DiMaggio, can I ask you a favor? …Would it be too much to ask you to change the taps you just put on my shoes? I think I'd like to have the same size taps on mine that you put on Ms Wilms' shoes."

"Sure, son, I'd be happy to do that for you."

So Sam took back the oxfords, went back to work, and a few minutes later returned to give Barry his shoes once more, this time with the larger #7 heel taps and #5 toe taps that his teacher had on her shoes. Barry looked at the large metal plates now attached to the heel and sole of his shoes. He thought about Ms Wilms and the identically sized taps on her own oxfords. It was kind of like a bond between them, he thought. As he walked out of the store, hearing the solid, sharp clacking sounds of steel on the cement coming from his own shoes for the first time, he felt a surge of emotion inside him. What it was he couldn't say: The noise of the taps? The attention others were giving him as he passed by? A sense of power he'd never felt before? Hard to say, but he knew it had something to do with Ms Wilms.


	9. Even Good Girls Do It

Once Brittney had brought the goth girls into the tap-wearing group, there were only two groups of girls who were left out—the nerds, girls who were so into doing their school work that they never paid attention to social life, and the shy ones, girls who might have wanted to have taps on their shoes but who were too afraid to go against their parents' wishes. Brittney, never one to give others slack for their weaknesses, often called the shy girls "goody-goodies."

Cherie was one of the goodie-goodies—a really cute 10th grade girl, medium-height, thin, with a long naturally blonde ponytail. She was always smiling, but her world was pretty closely defined by what her parents told her she could, or could not, do. For example, not only couldn't she date boys, her parents wouldn't even let her go out on Friday nights with her girlfriends to the local skating rink or the movies. They made sure she went to church every Sunday, and she even went twice-weekly to choir practice and participated every Saturday in the church service project, collecting used clothes and distributing them to poor families.

None of that meant that Cherie wasn't aware of the girls around her and the various fads and fashions around which other girls led their lives. And she wasn't immune to desiring to participate in this world herself. For example, as Cherie noticed more and more girls wearing taps on their shoes, scraping their heels along the sidewalks and hallway floors, she started to think that she'd like to have them on her shoes too. But when she asked her mom if she could put some taps on her skimmer flats and her loafers, her mom said, "Why Cherie! I'm surprised at you! No, you may not do that! Girls who put taps on their shoes are bad girls who are just advertising their availability for having sex."

Cherie was taken aback by her mom's response. Putting taps on shoes was just a cool thing—you got to make some noise and get people to notice you. What was wrong with that? she thought. When she happened to mention to Kelly, one of her best friends, what her mom had said, Kelly suggested that the two of them should talk with the tapgirl princess, Brittney Davis, to see what Brittney would recommend. So the next day at lunch, Kelly—who only last week had put taps on her own shoes for the first time—and Cherie together walked over to where Brittney was standing in line for soda, hoping to get her attention. The girls couldn't help but notice the huge #8 taps covering nearly all of one of Brittney's chunky-heeled Bass Weejun loafers, with her right shoe propped up and crossed against the back of her left leg. Kelly was the first to talk.

"Hey Brit," said Kelly. "How's it going? ….Did you see? I finally got some taps put on my new slingback sandals" and she lifted up her right leg behind her so Brittney could see the little #3 taps on the slingback's heel.

"Nice," replied Brittney unenthusiastically, clearly showing the girls she wasn't very impressed by inch-and-a-half-long taps on the heels of shoes.

Undeterred, Kelly continued. "Anyways, you know Cherie, right?" Brittney nodded and smiled, recognizing this slightly older and very pretty girl from having passed her in the hall all year.

"Well, Cherie wants to put taps on her shoes too, but her parents won't let her. What do you think she should do?"

Brittney gave Cherie a long look, taking in her shiny brown Bass penny loafers, knee-length skirt, floral blouse, and perky pony-tailed appearance, and then she blurted out, in a fairly loud voice, "Just do it, Cherie! Don't ask your parents. Just do it! Go over to Sam's and just tell him you want big metal taps on your shoes—heels and toes both. Your parents won't do anything to you. Sure, they'll yell at you. But look, I'm yelling at you too! They won't stop you. They certainly won't make you go back to Sam's to take the taps off. Look, you're their pride-and-joy, their darling baby girl, they don't want to lose your love. They know that if they stop you from doing some little thing that you want to do, you'll just start avoiding them. They don't want that. They want to see you, to talk to you, to hold you in their arms. Sure, they'll try to convince you that you shouldn't put taps on your shoes—or whatever it is you want to do. But they'll learn to live with it. They want you too much to stop you. Go Girl! Just do it!" And with that, Britney pulled her Diet Coke out of the machine and stomped away in her heavy steel-plated Weejuns.

The two girls were taken aback by Brittney's outburst. But as they talked to each other about what Brittney had said, it seemed to make more and more sense to them. Cherie's mom wouldn't really stop her, and in the end Cherie would have what she wanted—clicky, sonorous, metal taps announcing her presence to other kids with every step—and her mom would still love her anyway. So that day after school, when Cherie and Kelly met up with each other, they decided they would walk right over to Sam's. Walking fast, almost running, the two girls were out of breath by the time they got to the door of the Shoe Repair shop. Once inside, they caught their breath, and Sam came out from the back of the shop. The girls looked at each other, giggled , and this time Cherie spoke first.

"Could I have…," she paused, and then when she resumed the rest of her words came out all at once: "…some-metal-taps-on-these-loafers?" Then she looked down, took off her shoes, and gave them to Sam.

Sam, speaking slowly and calmly, replied with his own question: "Do you want them on the heels or the toes?"

Remembering what she'd seen on other girls' shoes, Cherie looked at Kelly for confirmation and then replied, "I'd like them in both places, if that's all right."

"Sure it's all right," said Sam as he brought out the board that had taps in all the different sizes he carried, each one labeled with its size number. "Which size taps do you want?"

Cherie thought about how Brittney had reacted with disdain to Kelly's #3 taps. She looked again at the tap board and said in a straightforward way, "I'd like these" pointing to the taps marked size 5. "Kelly, those would those be a good size, wouldn't they?" she asked her friend. Kelly also was thinking about Brittney's earlier reaction to the smallish taps on her sandals, so she nodded, and then said, "Well, yeah, those or the number 6's. Actually, I think the ones I put on my sandals are way too small, so yeah, I'd go with the 6's…. and maybe #4's on the toes."

Sam watched this conversation with some amusement. After Kelly finished making her recommendation, he asked Cherie, "So will you go with your friend's advice, then?" Cherie nodded her agreement. Sam added, now looking at Kelly, "and you, young lady, would you like me to replace the taps on your sandals with larger ones, like the ones I'm putting on your friend's loafers?"

Kelly smiled. "Sure," she said. "I didn't know you could do that. I thought I'd have to wait until they wore down."

"No," said Sam. "I can change them right now. I'll make them the same—both pairs of shoes: #6 on the heels and #4 on the toes. How is that?"

The two girls smiled. "Sure," they said in unison.

After the usual shoemaker sounds of nails pounding on metal taps, the handing off of newly tapped shoes, each girl excitedly gazing at the large metal crescents that occupied most of the bottoms of their shoes' heels, the now-familiar question and response ("How much?" "No charge for you girls "), each girl stomped down hard on the floor to test out their new taps. A minute later, Sam watched as the two chatty adolescent girls bounced out of his store. All over the small town's three-block downtown one could hear the melodic sounds of two pairs of teen girls' school shoes going click-clickety-click click as they sauntered confidently down the street.

The first challenge Cherie faced was, of course, how her mom and dad would react. For that, she felt lucky that Kelly would be able to be with her when she walked into her house that afternoon.

As it happened, two girls arrived at Cherie's home just about the same time Cherie's mom and dad drove up, the parents having carpooled home from their jobs, as they always did. John and Marsha Schmidt waved "hi" to the girls and as they held the kitchen door open, waiting for the girls to catch up to them, both parents noticed the sounds of taps coming from one of the girls' shoes. Marsha thought it odd that their daughter's friend Kelly would put taps on her shoes, but she didn't say anything at that point.

Once inside, on the hard tile kitchen floor, it was pretty clear that the metal tap sounds were coming, not just from Kelly's sandals but from Cherie's loafers as well. Too well-mannered to say anything at that point, Marsha invited Kelly to stay for dinner, an invitation which she eagerly accepted. The girls hung around the kitchen and helped Marsha prepare the meal and set the table. Meanwhile both parents were eagerly eyeing the girls' shoes, looking for physical evidence that metal taps, in fact, were on the bottoms. As Cherie got down on her knees to pick up a dropped piece of lettuce, Marsha got the evidence she was looking for—huge steel plates, clearly more than 2 inches long, covering most of the loafer's heel and ones almost as large under the toe of the shoe. When the girls momentarily left the kitchen, she whispered what she saw to John.

"Did you see? Cherie has those awful metal taps on her shoes! Big ones, too! Plus taps under the toes, too! Why do you think she did that?"

"I don't know," John replied. "I heard the taps outside. But at first I thought they were on Kelly's sandals."

"Should we say anything?"

"No," we'll have to wait until Kelly leaves.

So the four of them sat down to an uneasily quiet dinner. Eventually, though, the dinner wine relaxed the parents, and as nothing was being said about their taps, the two girls were giddy in delight of their accomplishment—wearing the despised taps right under the nose of Cherie's parents! By the end of the meal, the conversation was so enjoyable that all four of them forgot about the issue that had been on their minds at the beginning. After a great dessert and then some more idle talk about school and neighborhood, Kelly said she had to get home to work on her homework. She very politely thanked Mr. and Mrs. Schmidt for dinner, and with a last secret glance between the girls, Kelly bid her goodbyes and went out the door, clicking noticeably on the sidewalk outside.

After Kelly was out of view, Mrs. Schmidt was the first to speak.

"Kelly is a very nice girl," she said. "She's so polite and she dresses so well; she must be a real treasure to her parents." Cherie was pleased at her mom's comments. But then Mrs. Schmidt continued. "But I wonder why she has those awful metal taps on her shoes. Someone could mistake her for a girl looking for trouble, and that could lead to some pretty bad things happening to her."

Oh, oh, thought Cherie. Here it comes. She was going to have to own up.

"Maaaaaaaa-um," Cherie cried out. "That is so unfair! Look! See! I have taps on my shoes too. Big ones! Just like Kelly's. Am I looking for trouble? Am I a bad girl? You just can't say that just cuz I put taps on my shoes."

Just then her father interrupted. He'd been silent during this exchange, in part because he thought Kelly looked very pretty and the clicky-clicky sound of her walk as she left the house actually got him a little aroused. He thought maybe they were being too hard on the girls. "Marsha," he said. "I think Cherie's right, actually. We shouldn't read too much into one pair of taps on one pair of shoes. Cherie's the same girl as she was yesterday. It's just a fad for the girls at school now. It's not leading to promiscuity or anything. Let's not jump to conclusions. Let's at least give her the benefit of the doubt."

"Well," replied Mrs. Schmidt. "I still say it's not a good thing. But I won't say any more. Cherie, just be sure you watch who your friends are. I don't want you hanging with the wrong kids."

"OK, scooter," said her dad. "Better get started on your homework."

"Thanks, dad," said Cherie. "And thanks, mom, too." And she ran up and hugged them both. "You'll see. I'll be just the same girl I was before. It's just that you'll hear me coming and going now." And they all had a good laugh.

Now you would think that was the end of this little episode, and that the fad of wearing taps on their shoes had very little effects on the girls of Forest Glen High, particularly girls like Cherie and Kelly who came from good homes and whose parents strove to give them the highest of values. But as we shall see, it was Marsha Schmidt who was right in the end. Putting taps on her penny loafers was the key that started a volcano of change in girls like Cherie and Kelly. Within a year, both girls, just like Brittney the tapgirl princess and goth girls like Caroline, were smoking, using alcohol and drugs, and involved in petty crime, sexual promiscuity, and pornography. And it was all because of the Brittney connection—and the steel plated shoes that marked her signature.


	10. What Goes On In a Young Teacher's Mind

By the time Brittney walked into English class the next day, she'd already been told by a dozen people the news: "Did you hear? Ms Wilms came into school this morning clickety-clicking really loud and everyone could see she had really big metal taps on her oxfords!"

As Brittney and her fourth-period classmates filed in, Ms Wilms was seated at her desk at the back of the classroom, shuffling papers and reading through her notes. When the bell rang, the buzz of kids' conversations suddenly turned to a hush, as everyone waited to hear Ms Wilms stand up and walk to the front of the class. They didn't have to wait long. Her chair pushed back. Up she stood. Clip…clip…clip…clip…clickety-clip…scrape—the steel plates rang out with every step Ms Wilms took. And even before she could get out her first words of welcome to the class, a student in the last row called out to her.

"Ms Wilms?" said Gary Morris. "Why are you wearing metal taps on your shoes?"

"Well, Gary," replied Ms Wilms knowingly. "Don't YOU have taps on your shoes too?"

Gary looked down at the engineer boots he was wearing today. He made a big show of crossing one leg over the other and staring at the bottoms of his boots. "Gosh, Ms Wilms. I guess I do. I have these horseshoe plates on the heels of my boots and some 2 inch long taps around the sides and front of the soles. Gee, I guess I do have taps on my shoes…. But how come you do? You're a _teacher_!"

"I suppose you wouldn't believe me if I told you. Just like Brittney Davis, I put them on my shoes to prevent the heels from wearing down!" The whole class laughed, even Brittney. This morning, for some reason, Brittney had decided to wear _sneakers_ to school, so it was like a Freaky Friday situation—the tapgrrl was in sneakers and the English teacher, in tapped-up shoes!

"Ms Wilms," said Brittney. "I'm not wearing taps on my shoes. I've got sneakers on. Do you think I should put taps on my sneakers?"

"Sure, Brittney," said Ms Wilms. "If you're going to be our tapgirl princess, you'd better have them on _all_ your shoes, even sneakers!"

"But, Ms Wilms," said John Baker. "You never answered Gary's question. How come you put those big taps on your oxfords?"

"OK, I'll answer you, John, but then everyone has to agree to forget about my taps and get down to work, ok?" Everyone nodded. "When I was back in college, I had taps like these on most of my shoes. I always liked the clicky sound they made, and I thought it was too bad that so few girls had them on their shoes. Eventually, I stopped wearing taps because no one else did. So this year, when so many of you started wearing them I figured I could do that too. I actually have to thank you kids. You've given me the right to be who I wanted to be all along."

With that, the whole class broke into applause! "Go, Ms Wilms!!!" they yelled. "Our tapping teacher!"

And with that, the class went back to work, Ms Wilms leading everyone in a discussion of the 9th grade book for the Spring term, the Great Gatsby.

As the days went by, Ms Wilms decided she liked the taps on her oxfords so much, she started bringing all of her shoes over to Sam's to have taps put on them. Within a couple of weeks, she'd had size #5 or #6 taps put on several other pairs of the shoes she wore to school--her shiny black patent leather flats, her chunky-heeled loafers with the metal clip on top, her low-heeled brown penny loafers, her light blue and gold flats, and also on her thong sandals that she wore on warmer days. On the dressier pumps she occasionally wore, Sam put on a triple-layer of small taps that pretty much covered the heel (and added another half-inch to their height), and on her two pair of 4" high spike heels, Sam put on those steel stiletto heel tips he'd shown Brittney the first day she'd gone into his store to ask about taps.

The funny thing was that wearing these taps on her shoes and hearing herself walk around school made Ms Wilms very horny! She knew she wasn't supposed to have her mind on sex when she was teaching, but when she would click and scrape along the floor or the hallways, she'd think about one of the better-looking male students—whoever happened to be in her sight at that point—and she'd think about him in ways that teachers aren't supposed to. She'd smile at the young man, flash her eyelids, put a little extra sway into her walk, and, of course, make her taps scrape even more loudly along the floor.

Of all the boys in her classes, the one who Ms Wilms most had in her thoughts was John Baker. This tall, muscular 9th grader seemed much more mature to her than even most of the juniors and seniors she taught earlier in the day. He was still a kid, of course, horsing around and laughing with his friends. She liked that about him. But when he sauntered down the hall alone, with his loud double-horseshoe-tapped and triple-sole tapped harness boots announcing his authority with every step, Ms Wilms felt the age difference between them rapidly vanishing. She didn't know if she was feeling younger or he was seeming older, but things were not the same in her mind any more.

One afternoon, not long after she'd first worn her tapped-up oxfords to school, she saw and heard John walking ahead of her, about ready to step outside the building and start his walk home, so she quickened her steps to catch up with him and engage him in conversation.

John had heard someone coming towards him from behind, and hearing the unmistakable sounds of metal heel taps he figured it was one of his buddies, or maybe even Brittney or another one of the girls he'd gone out with that year. So he was pretty surprised to hear his name being spoken in a woman's voice.

"Hi there John," Ms Wilms called out. "So what are your plans for this afternoon? Are you going to be working on your English paper on Gatsby or do you have more fun things in mind to do?"

"Oh! Hi Ms Wilms," replied John. "Gee, I don't know. I'm just going to walk home and veg out for awhile and then figure out where my head's at."

"Can I give you a lift home?" asked Ms Wilms.

"Well, Ms Wilms, are teachers allowed to do that?"

"I guess so," she said. "I've never asked anyone about that…but then I've never offered a ride to a student before!" She smiled, hoping John would take that as a compliment, that she saw him as someone special.

So the two of them walked off together to the teacher's parking lot, chatting about the school, her penny loafers and his harness boots clicking rhythmically along the cement. As the two of them approached her new bright red Miata convertible, several teachers and students took note of this relatively unusual pairing. But neither John nor Ms Wilms paid any attention to that.

Ms Wilms started her engine, carefully backed out of her parking spot, and then gunned her engine as she pulled forward and out of the lot, clutch popping and tires spinning. If someone hadn't noticed her before, they certainly would have now. John thought, whew, this is one cool teacher!

As they drove along, he called out directions to his house, which was about two miles from school. Meanwhile, he gazed at her and reflected on what she was like. About 30, he guessed, although she looked younger, with short dark blonde hair. She wore her hair in a kind of flip behind her, a wisp of almost white-blond hair coming across her face, and she had two cute little curls, each one bopping up and down in front of her ears. She was talkative, and certainly wasn't shy. He thought she must have been married at some point, and he wondered if that was so and why she was most likely single now, as the absence of a ring indicated to him.

"Do you walk this route every day," Ms Wilms asked?

"Yeah, pretty much, except when someone nice like you gives me a ride."

"Well, actually, this is on my way home. I live in those apartments, just over the hill there," and she pointed to the right where the tops of a twin high-rise peeked out over a hilltop.

"Oh yeah? Is that a nice building? I've always wondered what those apartments were like. They must have a great view if you're up high enough."

"I'm plenty high. I'm on the 12th floor!" Ms Wilms thought for a moment, then added, "John, do you want to come over to see the view?"

"Sure!" he blurted out, not one to turn down a new experience.

So, at the next light, Ms Wilms did a quick u-turn, squeeling her tires as she did so, and then she raced ahead a block, quickly turned left and raced up over the hill to where the majestic Glen Towers Apartments came into full view. After screeching her car to a stop in the parking lot, she led John into the building, and they took a waiting elevator to the 12th floor. Once inside her apartment, Ms Wilms' walked across the parquet floor to open the drapes revealing a large picture window with a full view of the town and countryside beyond. As John walked along behind her, he noticed that the parquet tiles made the metal taps on both of their shoes sound extra loud. He thought that was very cool!

"Can I get you something to drink?" Ms Wilms asked. "I always have a glass of wine to unwind after the school day."

Now John had drunk beer many times with his friends, but he'd never been offered alcohol by an adult before, and certainly not by a teacher.

"I'll have whatever you're having," he replied.

"Coming right up," she said, and she clicked her way over to the bar, took out two wine glasses, filled them with a rose-colored liquid, and brought them back to the living room, handing one to her boy-student. "Zinfandel," she said. "ok?" John smiled and nodded.

She motioned over to a sofa that faced the picture window. "Why don't we sit here where we can enjoy the view?"

John sat down on the left-hand side of the sofa, and Ms Wilms placed herself right next to him. Trying to get comfortable, John stretched out his right arm and draped it over the sofa behind his teacher. Ms Wilms turned to face him, her drink in her right hand. She reached out towards John with her left hand and confidently put it against his cheek.

"John, you are so sweet; it's so _nice_ to see you in class every day! But also, you seem so strong, especially with those tough-looking boots you always wear. I love hearing you walk into my class, your boots crashing down on the floor. I know the taps on my shoes don't compare with yours, but I hope you like me anyway." And with that she turned his face towards hers and gave him a gentle kiss.

A little overwhelmed by Ms Wilms' apparent interest in him, John didn't know quite what to say. He certainly was enjoying this experience, but 30 minutes earlier drinking wine in Ms Wilms' apartment was about the furthest thing from his mind.

"Ms Wi… ," he started. She interrupted. "John, call me Susan. I don't want to just be your teacher. I think we can be friends, maybe even more than friends," and her eyes twinkled and her eyebrows raised up.

He'd actually never known his teacher's first name. It felt strange to him. He definitely liked being with a vivacious and somewhat older woman. But he needed to slow this train down.

"Well, er..ah, Susan. Sure I like you a lot. You're my favorite teacher, and you drive a cool car, and your home is awesome, and you're so nice to me. I'd definitely like to get to know you more, and outside of school, of course. But, I've been kind of stuck on a girl for the past couple of months, and it wouldn't seem right to do anything right now."

"I understand, John. I don't want to pressure you. I know I came on kind of suddenly. But who's your girlfriend? "

"Not exactly a girlfriend, just a girl I've gone out with a few times but who I really, really like. It's Brittney, from our English class."

"Oh, I should have guessed! Our tapgirl princess!" She laughed, a hearty but somewhat nervous laugh. "Don't get me wrong. I really like Brittney. But she really is just a kid. What's it that you like about her so much?"

"Well, Brittney's so confident about everything, and I really like the way she looks. I love her bright blonde hair and that her dark roots are always showing underneath. She's so sexy! Plus, she's not shy about anything. I mean she was wearing horseshoe taps on her boots before anyone else at school thought of doing that. It's like those taps give her the feeling that she's in charge wherever she goes!"

"Well, I agree, Brittney _is_ pretty, and sexy too." Susan sat up straight and gave a wave of her hand across her face and her hair. "I also lighten my hair from its natural color," she said. "Can you see?" Susan pulled her hair back so her slightly darker roots were more visible. "I used to bleach my hair light blonde all over. But bleached hair is harder to keep looking good, so that's why now I just bleach out the front streak, and that's why I keep it pretty short. But don't you think my hair looks pretty good?"

"Oh sure, your hair looks great!" John answered. "You're really the most attractive teacher at the school," he added.

"I'm glad to hear you say that," Susan said with some self-satisfaction, and then she smiled and took a sip of her wine.

Both sat quietly for a moment. Then Susan spoke up. "John, I've got some old Frye hiking boots in the closet, from my college days. Tell me if you think they could use some metal taps on them. Let me show you." She got up, walked over to the closet, poked around for a bit, and then came out with not one but _two_ pairs of boots—the older Fryes with rubber-cleated wood-based heels and soles and some very attractive, hardly worn women's cowboy boots with black, brown, and red stitching going up the shaft. "Actually, I haven't worn either of these boots to school, but I do wear them when I go out and on weekends. Up to now, I've not put taps on either of them. But suppose we were going out, like for a walk around here, or out to dinner [she gave him a wink and a smile at that thought], and you were in your double-horseshoed harness boots and I was wearing either the Fryes or these cowboy boots, don't you think they should have taps on them?"

"Oh, sure," replied John. "Those are both really awesome boots. And they'd definitely be better if you put taps on them. Actually I think they'd be especially nice with some big _horseshoe_ taps on them, like these," and he crossed his leg so she could see the huge heel-covering metal plates on his boots."

"Well, I hadn't thought of putting horseshoe taps on my boots," said Susan. "But if I was out walking in them with you next to me, maybe they _should_ have horseshoe taps on them, just like yours!" Then, thinking about her competitor, Brittney Davis, and what she puts on her boots, she added, "Come to think of it I would want my boots not just to have heel and toe taps but also taps on both sides of the soles. I've never had taps on the sides of the soles before, but I think I should do that on both of these, don't you think?" John nodded his agreement.

Susan continued. "I know that a few minutes ago I came on to you rather suddenly. I'm not hurt that you backed off a little. I understand that Brittney's a really attractive girl and she's someone close to your own age. But I'd really like to spend more time with you. How about if we meet somewhere this weekend and hang out, or maybe go for a long walk along a country road? I would really like that. What do you say?"

John thought, "This could be a lot of fun. She is really nice, and actually quite attractive, and I'm not really doing anything this weekend." So he nodded his head and said to her, "Sure, that would be cool. Let me find out if my parents need me for anything at home and then I'll call you and we'll pick a time to get together—or do you want to call me instead?"

"Either way. But you do have to remember that we can't really talk about this to other people. A lot of people wouldn't get the right idea, would they?"

John nodded again. "Yeah, I suppose you're right. But what's wrong with two people taking a walk in the country? Let's just forget about what other people might think!" John and Susan then exchanged phone numbers and agreed that she would make the call.

As they were leaving her apartment on the way to the car Susan said, "You know, John, I'm going to make sure you enjoy yourself this weekend. Right after I take you home, I'm going to take both of these pairs of boots over to Sam's, and I'm going to fix them up just the way you'd want them to look. Plus, I'm going to see if I can get a hair appointment for tomorrow, and I'm going to surprise you with how blonde I can be! Then we can go on our walk and really enjoy ourselves! I want to show you that a teacher can be a friend—even maybe _more_ than a friend."


	11. Saturday Walk Along a Country Road

The weekend couldn't come soon enough for Susan Wilms. She had done everything she said she'd do. She'd had her Frye boots and her cowboy boots both tapped up identically—with huge (and noisy) steel horseshoe plates put on the heels, bumper taps under the toes, and two pairs of #4 Eagle plates nailed along the sides of the soles—one on the instep and one on the outside of the sole. Then, she'd made an appointment to have a total hair coloring job done, which she did on Friday afternoon after school. When she got back to her apartment, she looked at herself in the mirror and loved what she saw—bleached platinum blonde waves all over, parted on the left side, with just enough roots showing at the base of her scalp so it was very plain that her natural hair color was much darker, closer to the brown of her eyes. Her mind was running wild. She thought, "This trashy look is so cool on me! John has got to like this!" Instinctively, she unzipped her pants, shoved her hand down to feel her wet clit, and wildly stroked it back and forth, until she finally collected her thoughts and calmed down.

Meanwhile, John, knowing none of this, was doing his own Friday afternoon trolling. After that sudden encounter earlier in the week with Susan Wilms' wild side, he decided he needed to center himself back into his teen world. So after school he hitched a ride to the mall with an older friend and hung out there to wait for Brittney to take a break from her after-school cashiering job at the mall's drug store. While she worked the cash register, Brittney noticed John hanging out nearby, and she motioned to him, making like she was dragging on a cigarette, implying that she'd be taking a smoking break soon.

Five or ten minutes later, Brittney called out to her supervisor that she was going on her break, and seconds later John heard her click-clicking loudly on the mall's terrazzo tiles. As they walked together out of the mall's interior into the parking lot, Brittney was already lighting up. At one level John didn't care for Brittney smoking, and several times he'd told her she should quit, but he did secretly enjoy watching her inhale and exhale, her chest expanding each time and the bright red flame coming forward towards the tip before she raised her head skyward and released a huge plume of smoke into the air.

John smiled. "So I see you haven't quit smoking yet."

"John, now why would I do that?" Brittney replied rhetorically. "You know how I love to smoke. And, besides, you know you like looking at me smoking. So shut up and just enjoy it!" And she drew in a deep breath, and inhaled, then breathed in again and inhaled that breath, and out came the biggest plume of smoke John had ever seen.

John decided he couldn't win, so best to change the subject. "So Brittney," what do you think of Ms Wilms, our English teacher?"

"Well, it is really cool that she wears taps on her shoes. I think she's worn shoes with taps every day for the past two weeks, hasn't she? And not little mousy taps, either. Number 5s and 6s plus those #7s on the oxfords she wore first. I wonder if other teachers will start doing that. D'ya think?"

"I doubt it, actually." But that wasn't what John wanted to ask Brittney about. "I mean, what do you think of her as a woman, you know. Is she hot?"

Brittney was confused. "What do you mean, 'Is she hot?' She's an A-dult for crissake. Like, she's o.k. as a teacher, but like are you thinking of asking her out or something? She's twice your age, John! If you want to fuck someone, fuck me! I thought I blew you pretty well that time in my bedroom!" Brittney laughed and then gazed confidently into the distance, taking another drag on her cigarette.

"Oh, Brittney, you were awesome! I don't mean she's as good as you. I just wondered, that's all." And John decided he'd better drop the subject. But it was hard for him to get Susan Wilms out of his mind, and he wondered if she really did get horseshoe taps put on her boots and bleach her hair blonde. For the next few minutes, John and Brittney were quiet, the only sound coming from Brittney idly tapping her loafers onto the cement, toe and heel taps clicking in sync, scrape-click, scrape-click, scrape-click, while she continued to take deep inhales of her cigarette.

"Well, John, I better get back inside. My boss thinks I spend too much time on breaks as it is. Are you gonna hang around till I'm done? My dad's coming by at 8 to take me home." And she dropped the remainder of her cigarette onto the cement, and stomped on it with the heel of her loafer, the normal clanging sound her metal taps usually make muffled by the paper and tobacco it encountered as it hit the ground.

"No, I think I'll walk home and get some dinner…. See ya later, Brit." And the two bid each other goodbye as Brittney clicked her way back inside the mall, her shoes making a particularly loud scraping sound against the sidewalk. It was as if she was taking out some annoyance by causing deeper-than-usual scratches and cuts to be engraved onto her metal taps. John sensed Brittney was a little peeved by his question about Ms Wilms being hot, and that maybe she was a little jealous. John smiled.

When John reached home, his mom said he'd gotten a call from a girl named Susan. "She had kind of an older voice, though." So John took the phone up to his room. His heart was racing, and he wasn't sure what he should say. He punched in the number she'd given him.

"Hello," called out a sweet, sexy voice at the other end of the phone.

"Hi, er ah Susan," said John, still unused to referring to his teacher by her first name. "This is John Baker."

"Hi John Baker. I know your voice, silly," said Susan. "I just wanted to tell you that I'm ready to go on that nice long walk in the country we talked about. How is tomorrow morning, like about 10? [pause] Good! Why don't we meet in the Acme Market parking lot at the end of your block?"

"Oh, and John, I've done everything I said I would. I hope you like the new me!"

Saturday was a gorgeous, sunny day, and John told his parents he was going to be out with some friends all day and might not be back until late that night. He had on a t-shirt, jeans, his engineer boots (of course), and carried a leather jacket over his shoulder. Eagerly anticipating his meeting with Susan, he left his house not much after 9:45 to walk the 3 minutes to the corner store. Meanwhile, Susan was up at 7, as eager as John, but by the time she showered, applied makeup, fixed her newly tinted hair, and put on her clothes—a dark purple silky blouse, skipping the brassiere this morning as she sometimes did, and light blue shorts that strikingly contrasted with her newly horseshoed heavy Frye hiking boots—it was nearly 10 a.m. She hardly had time to take the top off her convertible! But she managed to do that and then sped off towards her rendezvous with John.

As Susan's red Miata raced into the lot, top off and windows down, John recognized the car but not the adorable young woman who was driving it! A platinum blonde whose brightly colored hair shown brilliant in the sunlight, a young woman with a confident and winning smile on her face. She looked no more than 22 or 23, John thought. As Susan bounded from the car to meet him walking towards her, she took carefully measured steps with her boots, rather like performing on the stage of a fashion show, twirling around, showing off her hair, then bending over and projecting her left leg, boots raised off the ground with three steel sole plates attracting John's attention. Then, as she pirouetted around 180 degrees and led John back to the car, she lifted each leg behind her, one after the other, much as the winning horse performs its victory trot. As she raised each foot and then tilted it backwards, a gleaming steel horseshoe tap shined in the sunlight, easily seen by her co-conspirator, now close behind.

John caught up to Susan just as she reached the car, held the door open for her, and made sure she was safely inside. Then he walked around to the passenger side, but rather than open the door, he took a running leap and jumped over it, landing first on the passenger seat with his steel-heeled boots--which unfortunately made a slight tear in the leather seat--and then he jumped to the floor. He hoped Susan didn't mind about the tear in her seat leather, and actually she didn't mind at all. She thought, "If my upholstery is going to be scratched up, let it be by John's horseshoe taps. Who knows where today will lead, but right now it makes me think that even after we say goodnight the marks made by his boot heels will stay with me."

The day started out wonderfully. They first drove along the highway to the end of town and as far as Bannister Creek Road, the once-paved road that went past the old mill that had closed 30 years ago. They turned right on the old road, bumpity-bumping for about a quarter-mile, and then Susan pulled the car up onto the side of the road, and the two of them got out and started to walk ahead. Although the old cement had lots of cracks and holes, the pavement was still present in most places, so they had plenty of opportunity to click and clack and scrape their taps along the road. But now they were away from the noise of the highway, and no one was around at all. The solitude was sweet.

This was the first time for Susan in horseshoe taps, let alone having side taps on the soles of her boots, so she had to experiment a little bit with how to walk in them. Luckily the cement was rough and provided some traction for her initial steps. Also, the Fryes were heavy and broad at the heel and had rubber soles and so were pretty stable and really caused her no trouble at all.

"So how do you like the horseshoes and side taps, Susan," John asked after they'd walked for about a half-mile.

"They are really nice," replied Susan. "They're not as loud or as hard to walk in as I thought they'd be."

"Yeah," said John. "I knew you'd have no problems with them. You sound absolutely fabulous walking around in those huge taps, you know." He thought back to Thursday afternoon in her apartment and how much Susan had seemed to change. Or maybe it was he who was changing in her thoughts about her. Suddenly, the age difference didn't seem so big to him at all. He looked at her skipping over the potholes and landing hard on her steel heel plates. All of a sudden, he felt the need to touch her. He ran up to her, and pulled her by the hand towards him. She stopped and turned around, and John pulled her close to him and gave her a big, deep kiss. She kissed back even more strongly, and they embraced for a good minute before they relaxed and continued walking, hand in hand. Until that instant, John hadn't realized how much he liked her-- platinum blonde hair, horseshoe taps, and everything else.

They strolled along the road together, for more than an hour, holding hands like children and talking about all the things in their lives they'd never known about each other—which was almost everything! Finally, they came to where the road meets up with Bannister Creek. At that point a grassy meadow appeared and they decided to temporarily forgo the clicky-tappy sounds of the pavement and walk onto the grass. The grass was occasionally broken by solitary tall oak trees, and when they came upon one that they really liked, its leaves blowing softly in the wind, they decided to rest for awhile. They lay down in the shade of the tree, Susan's head in John's lap. She looked up at the swaying branches above, while John's eyes focused on her freshly blonded hair.

"Susan," he said. "Have I told you how much I love your blonde hair?" They both smiled. "You can see your brown roots really clearly where your hair is parted, and also you have a brown layer under the blonde in back."

"I know," said Susan. "I asked my hairdresser to do it that way. I like that kind of slutty look, don't you?"

"Susan," said John. "I like everything about you." Then he changed the subject. "Susan, can I see your horseshoe taps up close?"

She turned around and lay down so that her legs were right in John's face. He lifted up one leg and looked closely at the bottoms of the boot.

"Wow! I hadn't noticed before--your horseshoe taps are even bigger than the heel—they come over the edge by at least an eighth of an inch, all around."

"Yes, I know. Sam asked me if I wanted it that way. He said that the taps make more noise when they come over the edge of the heel, and also they can be seen more easily. Then I remembered that when I was in college and had taps on my shoes, one time the taps were too large for the heel and came over the edge like that. Those were my favorite pair. So I told him, 'yes, that's the way I'd like them to be.'

She added, "Did you see, Sam put toe-bumpers on the toes instead of regular toe taps, just like on your boots and Brittney's. I'd never had toe-bumpers before, but I love that you can see the steel taps from the front like that, even when the boots are flat on the ground."

"And what do you think of your side taps?"

"I like them a lot. I thought they might hurt my feet when I stepped down on the sole, but I only feel them slightly—just enough to remind me that I have steel plates on the sole. I think I'll take my loafers and flats in to Sam's and have him put side taps on them too. I'll bet even Brittney doesn't have side taps on her flats!"

"No, I don't think she does. You'll definitely be one-upping her on that one."

After awhile, the pauses between their sentences grew longer, and pretty soon they stopped talking altogether, Susan now lying directly on top of John, her legs bent back towards John so he could see her taps, still new-looking but now definitely worn. Her face was buried in the grass next to John's cheek. Soon they started to kiss and their hands traveled over each other's clothes. Their kisses became longer and more passionate, when they started hearing voices in the distance. At first the sounds were faint, but they got louder and louder rather quickly. There were two voices, both young, one male and one female.

"I think someone's coming along the road," Susan said. "We better stop for now. I think we're pretty visible."

They both sat up and looked down the road. Very soon they saw two people on bicycles, a boy and a girl, both with blonde hair and both talking loudly so they could hear one another while they traversed the bumpy road on their bikes.

As the two came into view, suddenly both John and Susan realized that they knew who they were!

"Oh my God, it's Brittney Davis and Barry Browne!" shouted Susan. "Quick, zip yourself up! Get up and let's get behind the tree so they don't see us!"

But it was too late. Brittney saw that the boy getting up from the grass was her friend, John Baker, and that he was with a girl—actually the girl looked to be an adult woman!

"Barry! Look! It's John Baker!" "Hey, JOHN!" she shouted out down the road. "What are you doing all the way out here?"

Meanwhile, Barry had spotted John also. He looked closely at the woman John was with. "Brittney," he whispered. "I think that's Ms Wilms with him!"

"No, silly. Can't be. Ms Wilms has mousy hair. That's a blonde he's …." "Wait! I think you're right!" "Ms Wilms? Is that you?" she shouted excitedly as the two approached on their bikes. "Shit! You look so different! You look great!" She figured she'd better add that too, at least until she figured out if she did like that look on her teacher.

By this point, John and Susan had gotten up, dusted themselves off, and reluctantly began walking towards the old road, just as Brittney and Barry, coming up to them, had slowed their bikes to a stop. "Goddamn, Brittney" exclaimed John, with some heavy annoyance. "Are you everywhere in this town?" He shook his head from side to side. "Can't a guy go off somewhere in peace?" But by this point, he had calmed down, and actually thought this whole scene was funny. He started to laugh, and it was totally infectious. All four of them started laughing and John and Brittney started jabbing each other in jest.

Both couples, of course, were curious about how the other came to be there. Brittney explained that after Barry had finally gotten the courage to put metal taps on his oxfords, she wanted to make up with him and so had suggested that they go bike riding today. John and Susan had a harder time figuring out how to explain their presence in this out-of-the-way place. Susan had an idea just in time. "How we got here," she said, "is that John had bothered me with lots of questions about his assignment for the Great Gatsby and so I suggested that we go for a drive and I could help him understand the underlying meanings that you couldn't get out of just reading it once."

"Going for a drive? But I don't see your car," said Barry.

"Did you see that red convertible back up by the highway?" Susan asked him. Barry nodded that he had. "That's mine. We left it back there when the road became too bumpy to hear one another. So we just got out and started walking. Finally, we got tired of walking and just sat down."

"Wow!" said Barry to John, quite seriously. "I didn't know you were so interested in English?"

Brittney, not so convinced about this story, said somewhat sarcastically, "Yeah, John, by now you must be a _total expert_ on that book." She look at Susan and smiled—almost laughing. "Ms Wilms, this is so unfair! John's getting way more help than anyone else on this assignment! You better grade him on a harder curve!"

Then, she took another look at Susan. "Ms Wilms, you sure changed your look since yesterday. The kids at school are gonna be amazed! If you came into school in those shorts and that top and with your hair so blonde, you'd never get your classes to pay any attention to your English lessons again!" She and the boys laughed.

Susan felt embarrassed. She stepped back, looked down, and shuffled her feet against the cement. But that just drew Brittney's and Barry's attention to her boots. Brittney thought she heard a metallic sound coming from Ms Wilms' boots. "Hey, Ms Wilms, those are cool retro boots you have on. Do those have taps on them too like the shoes you've been wearing to school?"

Susan looked up and smiled, still a bit embarrassed but less so. "Yes, they do Brittney. Actually, see, they have horseshoe taps on them like you and John have on your boots." Susan stood on one leg, leaned on John for support, and lifted her other leg so Brittney could see.

"Cool!" shouted Brittney. "Hey—you've got big side taps and are those toe bumpers too? Wow! You're just like one of us!"

Then everyone looked down to see what each other had on their feet. All four of them were in heavy boots. John with his engineers and double-horseshoes. Brittney, wearing her cowboy boots—the pair with horseshoe taps that she'd gotten at the thrift store. Then John and Susan looked at Barry to see what boots he had on. Barry had on some military combat boots with heavy rubber-cleated soles. When he saw his boots being looked at, Barry turned around, lifted one of his legs behind him, and showed the bottoms of his boots to John and Susan.

Brittney explained. "See. Barry has double-horseshoes on his boots too! Just like John! When we started out this morning, I asked him how he liked the taps on his oxfords, and I told him that the boots he had on should have taps on them too. So we rode over to Sam's and I convinced Barry to have Sam put double-horseshoes and side and toe taps on these boots. See?" Barry held his foot up behind him with his other hand and showed off the three large metal plates on the rubber sole of his boot. "Big ones," he added proudly. "Number 7's on the sides and toes!"

Brittney added, "But I couldn't let Barry do that without getting side taps put on these cowboy boots, so Sam put some on for me—three #3 taps on each side of the sole! Sam had to do it that way cuz the big taps like on Barry's wouldn't work cuz the sole is so curved on these boots."

John then realized they were all alike. "Hey," he shouted. "All four of us have horseshoe taps on our boots and side and toe taps too. We are like a gang!"

Barry added, "And our girl gang members both have bleached blonde hair too, just like gang girls do!" Everyone laughed.

Brittney suggested that they all go back into town together and get some lunch. Everyone agreed that was a good idea. Brittney said she and Barry would walk their bikes so the four of them could keep talking. It was about a two mile walk back to Susan's car, and during that time they all had fun trying to outdo one another with the noise of their horseshoe taps. It became pretty clear fairly soon that it wasn't just four people, but two couples. As they walked, at one point John turned to Susan and whispered, "Is it o.k. for them to call you Susan, too?" She smiled and nodded affirmatively. He then spoke up to the others, "Ms Wilms said that we could call her Susan."

"Susan?" said Brittney. "Gee I didn't know that was your name. Well, nice to meet you, Susan!" and she did a little dance and bowed before her teacher, scraping her taps extra loudly as she did this. So from this point on, it was Brittney and Barry, and John and Susan.

The four of them made a whole day of it. They had lunch at the nearest fast-food place they could find. (All four were starved by then.) Susan invited them all to her apartment for the afternoon, and since Brittney and Barry had had enough bike riding for the day, John and Susan followed each of them to their home, and they all squeezed into her little Miata and drove up the hill to her tower apartment. The four friends played frizbee out on the grass behind the building, and then they went inside to play board games and a few rounds of poker (with appropriate breaks for Brittney to smoke a cigarette out on Susan's deck). Then John and Susan drove to the store and bought some chicken and fixings and brought them back for a bar-b-que dinner that they cooked on the grill on her deck.

As the evening lights flickered on all over town below them, they went back inside, and the boys found Susan's videotape collection and picked out one they thought everyone would like—Fast Times at Ridgment High. The three teenagers identified a lot with the characters in that movie, although as Brittney said, "Kinda lame. We're way beyond that! Like fucking was such a big deal to them!" By the end of the movie, both couples were feeling pretty steamy. A lot of snuggling and touching and kissing was already going on, but since Brittney still regarded Barry as just a friend, she wasn't quite so comfortable doing much more than that, so she decided she'd better call it a night. Susan offered to drive her and Barry home, but they declined and found their way down the hill and back into their neighborhood on their own. Besides, they got to click and scrape their heels along the sidewalk all that way and while that was routine for Brittney, for Barry it was still a thrill to hear those horseshoe taps sounding out his heavy cadence as they headed home. Meanwhile, both John and Susan were completely worn out from the day. Not long after the others left, John fell asleep lying on Susan's lap, and she dozed as well. Around midnight, John woke up and suggested he'd better get home or his parents would start to wonder, so Susan drove him home and came back to an empty house, exhausted and happy, yet still achingly unfulfilled.


	12. TapTeens and Their Teacher Together

Not surprisingly, when school started on Monday and "the new" Ms Wilms walked in to the building, even though she was being reasonably conservative, tapwise, wearing her baby blue flats with "only" #6 heel taps, all eyes were on her newly colored platinum blonde hair. She got more cat-calls in that first five minutes from eager and frisky male students than she'd had all year. And that might have continued all day long except for other things that went on that day. At any event, Brittney, John, and Barry all realized that they had to keep quiet about their Saturday socializing with "Susan," and they confirmed that with each other by whispered remarks as they encountered one another going into school that morning. So, at least for the moment, the lid was kept on that particular secret.

But no one—not the students, not Ms Wilms, not the other teachers—was prepared for the announcement that came over the public address system during the regular 2nd period messages. Although usually the announcements were read by a student from the student legislature, today it was Vice Principal Hedley Hawkins whose voice entered all the classrooms.

"All of us at Forest Glen are proud of our building and grounds and we are proud of you for the effort you all take in keeping our campus looking well," he intoned, attempting to be upbeat but speaking in that way that kids know is completely phony. Students groaned, waiting for the other shoe to drop. "But a fashion trend has been taken up by many students that is causing maintenance problems for our custodial staff." Quizzical looks abounded, at least among those who were still paying attention. "Many of you have started wearing boots and shoes with metal cleats to school [more groans]. Although your effort to economize on your parents' expenditures for shoe repair is laudable [lots of snickers from the students], it's clear that your cleats are making marks and even scratches in our school's floors. Our custodians are having to work extra hours every day cleaning and scrubbing the floors just to keep them shiny and smooth.

"So beginning next Monday, all students will be prohibited from wearing to school shoes, boots, and other footwear that have metal plates on the soles or heels. The only exception will be the cleats that members of the athletic teams wear, but those will only be allowed in the gymnasium locker rooms and halls, and on the athletic field of course. We have spoken with Sam DiMaggio, the owner of Sam's Shoe Repair on Main Street, and he has agreed to remove the cleats—he calls them taps—from any of your shoes and boots that you wish to continue wearing to school. Thank you all for your cooperation on this matter, and let's continue to work to make Forest Glen the best looking school in the county! Remember—no cleats by next Monday!"

Suddenly, the entire student body woke from their usual stupor. In Brittney's Algebra class, Mr. Wilson could not get the students' attention for the next 15 minutes. Everyone got up out of their seats and they all gathered around Brittney.

"That's so phony! Our taps don't scratch up the floors. They're tile, not wood!"

"Yeah, no way I'm going to take these horseshoes off."

"Hey, didn't Hawkeye (a common nickname for Vice Principal Hawkins) say that it was _students_ who had to take their taps off? I'll bet they won't make Ms Wilms take _her_ taps off!"

"Sam's a traitor! Why would he agree to take all our taps off? He'll be doing this all week long and won't be able to do any of his other business. I'll bet he'll even _charge_ us!"

Some perceptive students noted that Mr. Hawkins was trying to make the students feel guilty by making the custodians out to be victims in this case, and that got some of them really annoyed.

Brittney listened to all these ideas. "Look guys," she said. "Let's be calm about this. First, we need to talk to the custodians. Let's see if they were the ones who were complaining or if it was Hawkeye's idea. Does anyone know any of the custodians personally?"

Megan spoke up. "Yeah, I know George, the guy with the bald head. He's a friend of my dad's."

"Good," replied Brittney. "Will you and Nicole go over and talk with him at lunch? Jessica, will you cut out of 3rd period with me and drive me over to see Sam? I want to see what he says. I can't believe he'd be happy about this either." "Sure," Jessica replied.

"From now on," shouted Robert. "Let's everybody make their shoes stomp up and down and make extra loud sounds with their taps in the halls. We'll have a tap parade every passing period!"

"Great idea! We won't let them do this to us!"

"Yeah!"

"OK! OK!" shouted out Mr. Wilson for the fourth or fifth time. "Let's everyone get down to work!" "We have homework to go over!" And finally, one by one the students turned and went back to their seats, muttering obscenities the whole time.

In almost every classroom, similar discussions were being held, and between classes the whole school was as noisy as it had ever been. Not only were kids scraping and sliding and stomping on the floors with their taps—the boys' horseshoe taps being particularly loud—but leaders among the students, including the senior girls who were actually among the more recent tap wearers, and the junior guys, who were generally the ones with the most outrageously noisy boots and loafers, were constantly being accosted by others about what they were going to do about this affront to their independence and their style. Even 9th graders like Brittney and John were drawn into these conversations, and with everybody acknowledging Brittney's and John's role in starting the tap-wearing fad, people paid attention to what they had to say.

The students decided that they would collect what ideas and information they could from other students during the rest of the morning, and they'd all meet at lunch in the smoking area behind the technology wing and then decide what to do. Several students wanted to accompany Brittney over to Sam's during 3rd period, and there was a group who wanted to talk to the Head Counselor, Mrs. Jackson. She'd always joked around with them about wearing taps (some of them wondering if maybe she even had taps on some of her shoes herself).

Brittney led a two-car caravan that set off for Sam's Shoe Repair. Into his store marched 9th graders Brittney (in her Bass Weejun loafers with size 8 and 5 taps) and Jessica (in rubber-soled black oxfords with #7's and #4's), three junior guys each sporting horseshoe taps and toe and side taps on their brown or black roper, cowboy, or biker boots, and two senior girls both in skimmer flats with #5 metal taps on their heels. They all crowded into the shop and Sam knew exactly why they'd come.

"Hello everyone," he called out. "Before you get all angry at me, let me just say that I'm totally on your side. I think you have the right to put whatever you want on your boots and shoes. But put yourself in my place. I have to deal with the Chamber of Commerce and the mayor and city councilmen who run this town. And your principal, Mr. Martin, and your vice-principal,… what's his name again?" ("Hawkeye," one of the boys yelled out, and the others all laughed.) "Well, whatever," continued Sam. "They've got a lot more clout with the mayor and those others than I do. If they want you to keep the taps off the shoes you wear at school and they want me to help them do that, I can't really say no. Mr. Martin called me and told me the school's floors are being scratched up by the taps and that I'm contributing to your…what did he say?…oh yeah 'delinquency'. I tried to tell him that I put the taps on in such a way that there aren't any sharp points coming from them and that you're not really going to be scratching his tile floors or the cement—not in any deep way, anyway. But he already had his mind made up. It wouldn't have done any good to try to argue with him."

"But Sam," Brittney screamed. "Why would you agree to take the taps off, then? Since they don't scratch the school floors, as you say, and if it's those assholes that want us to not wear them, then let _them_ take our taps off!"

"Brittney, I'm sorry. That's just the way it has to be. I make my living here in town repairing shoes. I've got to at least try to stay on good terms with the principal of the biggest high school around. Still, if you students are united and if you argue your case strongly, you might win." He added, "I sure hope you can, because I don't want to waste my time taking 4,000 pairs of metal taps off of shoes. I'm guessing that's how many I've put on your classmates' shoes over the past few months."

"Really? Four thousand pairs of taps?" asked Francisco, one of the junior boys. "There aren't nearly that many kids in the whole school."

"Yeah," Sam agreed. "There are only about 1,000 students at Forest Glen. But if you figure that four out of five of them have taps on their shoes and three-quarters of those kids come in here for getting their taps put on, and on average there are both toe and heel taps—remember some of you have 4 or even more pair on a pair of boots." (Francisco looked down and realized he had 5 pairs of taps on his—double-horseshoes, side, and toe taps.) "And, then, I'd guess each of you have brought in about 5 pair on average to have taps put on. So that works out to, let's see…," as he took out his calculator. "So let's say six hundred kids times, o.k., let's be conservative, two pairs of taps per pair of shoes, times five pairs of shoes each, that's 6,000 taps! Wow, that's even more than I thought! No wonder the distributor is telling me he can't keep up with my orders!"

Sam thought a little more, "Hey, one thing you _can_ tell your principal. Tell him there's no way I can take that many taps off of shoes in a week. Well, I'll call him and tell him that; you don't need to."

"Hey, Sam," said Francisco. "Are you gonna charge us for taking the taps off?"

"No, son," Sam replied. "Actually the principal offered to pay me to do it—a dollar for every pair of shoes or boots—but I told him, no, I couldn't take his money for doing that. Then you, my good customers, would think that I was doing that just to make money. You know—and please don't tell your principal—I love it that you have all that steel on your heels and soles. This is hurting me as much as it's hurting you!"

"OK, then Mr. DiMaggio," said Kathleen, one of the senior girls in the group. "So how can we argue our case with those dummy administrators?"

"You'll have to figure that one out, Kathleen," he replied. "I can't help you there, or Mr. Martin could claim that I put you up to challenging their new rule. Anyway, you kids are bright. Just go back and talk about it with your friends; you'll come up with something that will work. I'm sure you will. I'll give you just a little suggestion, though. Don't try to threaten the school administration—you won't win that way. But if you can come up with a way out for them--so they won't look foolish--you might be able to keep your taps on. I sure hope so!"

So the group left the shop, clicking away in all their various tapped-up footwear, talking about what they might do. Then they got in their cars and sped back to school, in time for 4th period—for Brittney, her English class with Ms Wilms.


	13. Forest Glen High Strikes for Taps

Just like in her first three classes that day, Ms Wilms' 4th period 9th grade English class couldn't get over how cute their teacher looked with her new platinum blonde hair. She seemed more like an older sister now than a teacher. John and Barry weren't the only guys to have the hots for her! But instead of distracting the students from her lesson, she had the students' attention better than she usually did. As she clicked around the room, all heads followed her and the students actually appeared to be listening! So the English lesson on the concluding chapter of Gatsby went very well, especially given the fact that most students' thoughts up until then had been focused on the impending new rule about "no metal cleats on shoes." As the period wore on, though, the students' interest waned in Ms Wilms' lesson, and there was an increasing buzz around Brittney, who had started to whisper to her friends about the visit she and others had had with shoe repairman Sam DiMaggio just before 4th period.

"Ms Wilms?" Brittney called out. "Can we ask you a question that's, like, off topic?"

"Brittney," replied Ms Wilms. "Can it wait until the end of the period?"

"Honestly, Ms Wilms, a lot of us would really appreciate it if I could ask my question now." Others nodded, knowing what was on Brittney's mind.

"OK, then. Let's have it."

"Well, remember this morning's announcement from Hawkeye,…I mean Mr. Hawkins, about how we have to take all the taps off of our shoes? What do you think we should do about it…after all, it's going to affect you too, isn't it?"

"Yes, Brittney, I suppose I'll have to remove the taps from my shoes too."

"Well, what can we do to stop this rule from going into effect?"

"To tell you the truth, I haven't thought about it that much. Remember, I actually have to focus my thoughts on how to get you kids to learn things during the day! But, one thing is true is that the administration listens to whoever gets their attention the loudest—and I don't mean with noise from your shoes! [laughter] I mean maybe it was the custodians or maybe it was some teachers complaining, I don't know, but if you all stand together and present a united front, I think they might listen, especially if you can back up your position with some good ideas, like how to make sure the school floors stay shiny and free of scratches."

"So you think we can stop this?"

"Well, you have _my_ support," smiled Ms Wilms. And she scraped her metal taps across the floor a couple of times to make her point.

After the bell for lunch rang, as they had talked about doing during the passing periods, about 50 students assembled in the smoking area of the school courtyard. But most of the students there that day weren't smoking—not even Brittney. Their attention was focused on what they were going to do. One of the junior girls, Felicity, took the lead in the organizing the discussion. Felicity was a tall girl with long, straight, dark hair. As she typically did, Felicity was wearing a knee-length skirt—fairly conservative dress for the girls at Forest Glen—and her shoes that day were 2-inch heel Mary Jane strappy pumps that she'd outfitted with full-heel and full-sole Capezio dance taps. She really was a tap dancer, but she liked the sound her dance taps made so much that she often wore tap-dance type shoes to school—that is, when she wasn't wearing loafers or boots with steel taps on them.

Felicity first asked students in each of the classes in turn—seniors down to freshmen—to speak about how badly the students wanted to fight the no-cleats ruling. Every single person who spoke said that everyone they'd talked to was really angry about it and were ready to do anything that had to be done to stop that rule from going into effect.

Then she asked for a report from Brittney about what Sam DiMaggio had suggested. Brittney said that both Sam and Ms Wilms thought that the students could get the administration to change its mind, but that they would have to prove to the administration that the taps wouldn't mess up the floors. She added that Sam had also said they couldn't make the adults look like they were caving in.

Then Megan reported on her meeting with the custodian—actually with two custodians—who said that while it was true that the taps sometimes made marks on the floor, they actually didn't mind the extra work because they liked it that kids had taps on their shoes. One of them said girls "looked sexier with taps on," and both custodians thought the boys' horseshoe plates were cool. They didn't know why Mr. Hawkins had said it was the custodians who'd objected to the taps, except that "maybe Mr. Hawkins was jealous of us kids 'cause we could wear taps and be cool and he would just look silly doing that!" A mixture of laughter and shouts of agreement followed Megan's last statement.

Every comment made the students more and more convinced that they should fight the new rule. After a few more students had spoken, some who were listening started yelling "Strike, Strike, Strike!" and that call was picked up by more and more kids in the group. Within a few seconds, Felicity lost control of her audience as most of them proceeded to form a line and march out of the smoking area back into the general outdoor lunch area. They were stomping down loudly with their shoes and boots and chanting in unison things like "Strike for Taps!" and "Taps Forever!" and "Save Our Taps!" Pretty soon the impromptu demonstrators just merged back into the larger group eating lunch. But a few of the leaders—Brittney, Felicity, Francisco, and Kathleen—sat down together to eat lunch and plan what to do next.

The kids' cell phones were extra busy that afternoon and evening, and by the time they got to sleep that night, they had it all planned out. About 20 kids had spent the afternoon at Downtown Burger City making old-fashioned protest signs that read things like "Keep Forest Glen Clicking!", "A Tappy School is a Happy School!", "Freedom is the Right to Wear Taps!" and "Custodians Support Taps in the Halls!" But the student leaders were prepared to do more than demonstrate. Meeting at Felicity Grant's home late that evening, they talked through a number of ideas and came up with a plan to present to the school administration the next day.

On Tuesday morning, 500 students had already assembled outside the school 15 minutes before the final bell. And they weren't the only ones there! Felicity and Kathleen had gone over to KFGC, the local TV station, after school on Monday, and they had told the news manager that there'd be a demonstration at school the next morning and what it was about. So a KFGC camera crew had arrived along with the station's leading features reporter, Kelly Clark, a popular 20-something woman who herself had been a Forest Glen Cheerleader a decade earlier.

The students gathered in groups outside of the school, both in the front where the camera crew was and also around the east side where the buses dropped kids off and where the students who drove to school parked. At each location, about 100 students were marching in line shouting slogans while other students gathered around them cheering them on and urging other students to stay outside and not go in the building. The TV reporter, Kelly Clark, was going from one interview to the next. She'd ask each student the same question: "Why are you demonstrating in front of the school this morning?" And each student would do the same thing. They'd lift one of their feet behind them, or slip off one of their shoes, point the bottom of the shoe towards the camera, so the cameraman could get a good close-up shot of the several crescent-shaped or horseshoe-shaped plates underneath, and angrily announce that the school was trying to take away their rights to dress the way they wanted. Kelly would ask them, "Well what about the damage those taps are doing to the school floors?" and the students would all reply that that was a phony excuse the administrators were using, that the taps didn't mess up the tile floors and that the custodians supported their cause.

The teachers and other adult staff had several different types of reactions. A lot of the teachers had frowns on their faces and tried to ignore the kids and brushed past them in order to enter the school. Other teachers smiled broadly at the kids, some of them motioning their support by waving at the kids or pretending to make noise by shuffling their tapless shoes. Two or three of the teachers stayed outside with the students, either hanging around the camera crew or chatting with the students they knew from their classes.

When the 8:30 final bell rang, people listened and watched to see what everyone else would do. The remaining teachers went into the building accompanied by maybe 25 to 50 students, most of them from the band class that was having an important rehearsal that morning. To urge on their friends to remain true to the cause, a number of kids shouted out, "Strike, Strike!" "Stay Outside!" "No taps, no school!" and some other phrases that weren't appropriate for the evening news. Most everyone remained outside.

Inside the principal's office, Mr. Martin, Mr. Hawkins, and several other administrators looked out at the students, and talked about what they should do. They talked about the announcement that morning, which had blamed the rule on the custodians having to do more cleaning of the floors. Mr. Martin admitted to Mrs. Jackson, the head counselor, who had asked him about that, that although it might be true that the taps caused problems to the floors, the issue was really brought on by complaints from some of the teachers—he mentioned Mr. Wilson, the math teacher. "What is Wilson's problem?" Mrs. Jackson cried out.

Just as Mr. Martin was about to answer her, the registrar, Mr. Hooke, came into the room to report on his quick walk throughout the school building. Somewhat out of breath, he paused for a moment. Then he said, "I've gone all around the building, and looked in most of the classrooms. I'd estimate that maybe 200 kids are inside. That leaves at least 700, probably closer to 800, outside." Mrs. Jackson added that from looking out at the gatherings of students outside, that Mr. Hooke's estimate seems to be about right. Mr. Hooke said that some of the "churchy" kids like 10th graders Cherie and Kelly told him that the only reason they were inside was that their parents, whom they'd called on their cell phones, had made them go to class. Kelly had showed Mr. Hooke the taps on her shoes and said "Really, Mr. Hooke, I think we ought to be able to keep wearing these."

"Charles,…Hedley,…Doris," said Mr. Hooke to Principal Martin, Vice Principal Hawkins, and head counselor Jackson. "I wonder if we went to far to try to control our kids. After all, they don't mean any harm to the school. Maybe we should at least talk to them about this. That reporter, Kelly Clark, is outside, talking to all the kids, and that is not helping us any; it won't look so good on the evening news. I don't think the parents really care one way or the other, and as for some of the teachers who complained, you have to admit some of them are living back in the stone age," and he glared a little at Vice Principal Hawkins as he said that.

After discussing Mr. Hooke's idea for awhile, Mr. Martin told him to go outside and find five of the students who appeared to be leading the group and invite them to come in to talk about their concerns. Mr. Hooke went outside, started talking with a few students who he knew, asking them who the leaders of the demonstration were. Once he convinced his listeners that the students they named weren't going to get into trouble, several students volunteered Brittney's name and Felicity's. Mr. Hooke found the two girls and asked them to select three others to join them in a meeting with the principal. So, led by Mr. Hooke, Brittney and Felicity and the three others they suggested—John Baker, Francisco Cordero, and Kathleen Anderson—all paraded into the building, taps clicking loudly and proudly, to the cheers and applause from their fellow demonstrators.

The five students really didn't know what to expect, never having done this kind of thing before, and so the first few minutes they were quite nervous, Brittney wishing she'd taken a quick smoke before coming in. But after Mr. Martin made sure the students were comfortable and understood that at this point there was no threat of punishment—after all, it was only 30 minutes after school was supposed to start—he asked them to talk about why they thought the school should not prohibit the wearing of metal cleats—he kept calling the taps 'cleats.'

Felicity took the lead. "Principal Martin, Vice Principal Hawkins, Mr. Hooke, Mrs. Jackson. We all really like Forest Glen, and most kids try to stay within the rules, but we don't see why we can't have taps on our shoes. We can understand why you would want some rules about what we can wear—like not wearing thong underwear or short shorts or going topless of course. But having taps on our shoes doesn't seem anything like those things. We just like having them on our shoes. We're not disrupting class or anything with them." (At those words, Brittney looked at John and unsuccessfully tried to hide her big grin.) "We just like making noise with our shoes during the passing periods."

Principal Martin spoke next. "Well, Felicity, I'm sure you know how much we all appreciate the positive attitudes that most Forest Glen students have towards the school. The new rule regarding cleats—er, I guess you call them 'taps'—anyway, the rule came about, not because we think they show a bad attitude by the students, but because the custodians are having to spend so much more time cleaning and polishing the floors this year than in previous years. The only thing that's different this year is that all of you kids are wearing those steel cleats on your shoes."

"Actually, Mr. Martin," Felicity interrupted. "The taps on my shoes are aluminum ones—they're dance taps—but yes, mostly our taps are steel ones."

Then Francisco piped up. "Mr. Martin, some of the kids talked to the custodians and they don't mind that we have taps on our shoes. In fact, they said they kind of liked it! So you can't just blame this new rule on them!"

"Well, regardless of what the custodians told you," continued Mr. Martin, becoming somewhat annoyed, but still under control. "We can't keep hiring more of them to clean up after you kids just because you want to make noise with your shoes!" He decided not to bring up the objections of the teachers because he'd just told the students the new rule wasn't because of their bad attitudes, and he figured he'd better stick to his first story.

"Felicity," interrupted Brittney. "Let me explain the idea we came up with yesterday, ok?"

"Mr. Martin," said Felicity. "Brittney has a good idea that I think will solve your problem and still let us keep the taps on our shoes. Go ahead, Brit."

"Well, Mr. Martin, I talked with Sam—er, Mr. DiMaggio—at the shoe repair and he says that the main reason why taps would mark or scratch up the floors is if there's a sharp edge on them—like from a nail not going in all the way or not being filed down to the level of the tap. I can see that maybe some shoes or boots might be like that—although Sam told us he is very careful about that and files the nails down on his machine before he gives the shoes back to us to wear. But I suppose some nails might slip by or some other shoe repair person might not be so careful. So this is what we propose. We propose that we set up a committee of students and adults—maybe you'd want teachers on it or some administrators—whichever you'd like. Anyway, the committee's job would be to monitor kids' shoes and boots as they walked in to school and check their taps to be sure there weren't any sharp edges, from the nails or anything else."

"Wait, Brittney," interrupted Mr. Hawkins, the Vice-Principal. "There's no way you could check everyone's shoes, every day!"

"Sure, we know that!" said John Baker, who'd been very quiet up to that point. "But we've worked that all out. Tell him, Brittney."

"Well, we propose keeping a record on everyone's shoes and boots and what taps they have on them. We would do a spot check every day—maybe check 100 kids every day, 50 before school and 50 at lunch—and within a few weeks we would have probably checked pretty much all the shoes that kids wear to school, at least on a regular basis. If we found a pair of shoes that looked like it might scratch the floors then we'd write the student up! We'd tell him…or her…that they'd have to have the taps on those shoes fixed before they could wear them to school again, and we'd keep checking that student to see that the problem had been fixed."

"Whoa, Brittney," cried Mr. Martin. "That is an awful lot of work—all that checking and record-keeping. Would you have enough students willing to participate on that committee, taking time from their lunch and having to get here early and keep track of all that stuff? Also, how could you keep track of who'd been tested by which committee member and for which pairs of shoes or boots? And how do you know the students would go along? What if someone objected to having their shoes checked?"

"Mr. Martin." This was Kathleen stepping in now. "We already know we have enough students to be on this committee. We've already had 20 students volunteer and we've only asked our best friends so far. We kids like looking to see what taps people have put on their shoes and boots, so a lot of us think this would be fun! Even if you didn't get any teachers or administrators who would be willing to do it, we could do all the work and you could have the adults just check on us to be sure we weren't letting anyone get past us."

"About how we would do it," answered Francisco. "We've already figured that out. We're going to use the Filemaker database program, a digital camera, and laptops that are connected to the school's file server. Our ID cards are already scanable, so a kid comes in, we scan his ID, that brings up the file that has pictures and descriptions of his shoes and boots. We take a quick look at his shoes and the taps on them. We check the file to see if he's wearing a pair that's not yet in the database. If that's so, then we take some pics of his shoes, including the taps on them, type in a quick description as a check when we later upload the pics, and then we test the taps for sharp edges. If they pass, we mark that in the file. If not, we tell him he's got to get that fixed before the next time he comes to school with those shoes. If someone didn't agree to be tested, we'd write them up and they'd have to go to the office before their next teacher would let them in. That's one of the nice things about our new computer-based attendance system."

"Well," said Mr. Hooke. "It does look like you've done a lot of work preparing this idea, haven't you?"

"And as for whether the students are in favor of this in general," added Felicity. "We think they are, but if you want, you could put the whole idea to a vote—ask them which they'd rather do: have the check-up system we're proposing or prohibit taps altogether. We're pretty sure most kids would rather be tested. After all, we're already spot-tested for drugs and weapons. Testing for scratchy taps is just no big deal!"

The principal had been listening very carefully to all of this. When the students had finished their presentation, he asked them to wait in the hall for a few minutes while the four administrators conferred with each other.

Several minutes later, the Principal ushered the students back into his office.

"All right," said Mr. Martin. "We have agreed to try out your system. We thought about having the students vote on it first, but since so many students went along with you this morning and were willing to strike for the right to wear taps, we're happy to let you just try it out. Do you think you can get your committee organized and the programming you need to do done by next Monday?" The students all nodded affirmatively. "Good, then I will ask Brittney to come in and announce the plan to the whole school during the 2nd period announcements, and we will proceed from there. Now will you all go outside and ask everyone to come in to the building and go to their 2nd period class? The passing period is just about ready to begin."

The five students jumped in the air, and let out a yell, before they realized they were still in the principal's office, and they'd better be more subdued. They turned to the four adults and shook hands all around, and then they ran out to the front of the building and yelled out to the students who crowded around. "We won, we won!" shouted Brittney and the others. "We can keep our taps!"

As word rapidly spread, cheers were yelled out from all over the front and side of the school grounds. The students all started filing back into the building, and followed the loudspeaker announcement to go directly to their 2nd period class where they would be filled in on the details of the agreement.

The TV reporter, Kelly Clark, asked Brittney for a few quick words. At first, Brittney was so

pumped up by the students' victory that all she could say was "Taps Forever! We can wear our taps forever!" But then she forced herself to calm down quickly, and, like a pro, talked into the camera about the students' plan to check all their shoes to be sure their taps wouldn't scratch the floors. Then she turned to the reporter, "You know, Kelly, metal taps aren't just for high school kids. One of our teachers has them on her shoes too! You should try them yourself!"

Taken by surprise by Brittney's suggestion, Kelly Clark quickly recovered. She smiled into the camera and said, "Maybe this reporter will take you up on your suggestion. You never know! Reporting from Forest Glen High School, Kelly Clark, KFGC Channel 3 News."


	14. A Database of Taps

The first few days that the "Tap-Check Committee," as it came to be called, did its work, there were a lot of glitches. There was no problem getting students to agree to have their shoes inspected, and in fact usually several friends would gather around to watch and joke with them while the checking was going on. At first the committee asked people to take off their shoes, but it turned out to be easier to just have the student sit down on a chair with one leg crossed over the other. The computer guy would enter the information on the laptop and the tap-checker would take photos and then inspect the taps for sharp edges. The usual glitch was that the computer was too slow or it took to long to enter the description. Also, it was hard to keep choosing students randomly because often several kids volunteered at the same time.

"Pick me, Brittney! My #7 heel taps are awesome on these flats!"

"No, me, Brittney! Melissa already got picked yesterday! I've worn four different pairs of shoes this week, all of them with heel and toe taps, and I haven't been picked once!"

Francisco had made a place in his computer program for entering the location and size of each of the taps they identified. At first, they thought they could tell a #3 from a #4 or a #5 from a #6, at least by the number etched into the tap. But because the kids scraped their taps across the concrete so much, the etched numbers soon became illegible, so the committee members brought in a ruler, and when they couldn't tell and the wearer didn't know they measured the size of the tap plate.

After the first two days, Francisco totaled up the score of shoes checked and taps counted. They'd checked 205 different pairs of shoes so far on 184 kids. There were heel taps on 64 of the 91 boys' shoes and on 95 of the 114 girls' shoes. Only 3 heel taps were found to have sharp edges coming from nails that stuck up above the hole for them in the tap. (There might have been more originally, but if there were, the nail heads had already worn down to be flush with the tap.) Ten of the toe taps had problems, and sharp edges were found on 12 of the side taps. Kathleen, who served as chairman of the tap-check committee, reported these totals to Mr. Martin and suggested that since the toe taps don't really hit the floor much that they should be allowed to skip checking them and then they'd be able to test more of the students' shoes. The Principal agreed with Kathleen's request, partly because he was quite pleased with the interest and enthusiasm that the students had shown for having their taps inspected and repaired. All 16 pairs of shoes that were found to have problems (some had more than one sharp-edged tap) got fixed up, usually that same afternoon in Sam's Shoe Shop.

One surprise for the tap-checkers was that there were more shoes with horseshoe taps than they thought there would be, particularly on boys' shoes. In that first week of inspections, more than half of the boys with taps had shoes with horseshoe plates and 10 of them were double-horseshoes, like John Baker's. In truth, the boys of Forest Glen had really taken to the huge steel plates they'd covered their heels with, and horseshoes were now found as often on loafers or lace-up oxfords as they were on boots. Every morning, guys would compete with each other to see how far they could slide on their horseshoe tapped loafers along the hallway tile floors. They discovered they could slide even further if they put side taps on. One 9th grader even had Sam the shoe repairman put a row of taps down the middle of the sole of his oxfords. But although the boy did slide further than anyone else, he also couldn't walk in those shoes without slipping and falling all over the place. The next day, his middle-sole taps were off. But over the next couple of weeks, several other boys put one or two middle-sole taps on their loafers as well. The 9th grade boys also had a tendency to get into fights with each other, but if two of them with horseshoe taps started fighting, it wouldn't last very long because they'd slip and fall before they landed many punches. On the other hand, those fights sometimes ended with one of the boys stomping on the other one with his horseshoe-heeled boot, and then it did get bloody. Mr. Hawkins had to be called in to break those fights up, and that led to him disliking the kids' taps even more than before.

After the first week, the tap-checking went more smoothly. But with everyone looking closely at everyone else's shoes and taps, there was a lot of comparing and bragging and putting other kids down. Sometimes feelings were hurt as students with bigger taps made fun of those who'd put small taps on.

"Jeez, Allison, you're such a wimp! How come you have only #3s on those loafers? The heels are big enough to take #6's or even #7's! And you don't even have any toe taps on them!"

"Buzz off, Jennifer," Allison would reply. And then Allison, feeling the need to get respect from the other girls, would walk over to Sam's Shoe Shop after school and have her #3's replaced with #7's and have the #3's moved to the toes of her shoes.

The biggest scorn was handed out to the kids who wore sneakers to school or whose oxfords didn't have taps on them at all. Catcalls and boos greeted each of those inspections, not from the tap-checkers but from the students watching. In fact, Kathleen and Felicity took pains to make the non-tap-wearers feel o.k. They usually said something like "That's all right, Tom. You're allowed to wear shoes without taps if you want. But in case you change your mind, be sure to let us know so we can check the taps to make sure they don't have sharp edges. And if you ever want some help in deciding what size taps to put on for the first time, just come looking for me. I'd be glad to help you." With their beautiful eyes blinking suggestively and their calm, supportive words, Kathleen and Felicity could convince almost any guy to put taps on his shoes. And Brittney could convince any girl, so between the three of them, most of the remaining tapless Forest Glen students crossed over the line during the next several weeks.

By the end of the fourth week of shoe inspections, the tap-checking committee had inspected at least one or two pairs of shoes for every student in the school—as many as a dozen pairs for some of the shoe-crazy girls. Francisco decided to take on the challenge of tabulating statistics about the taps that people had on their shoes, and he prepared several tables or charts that gave all the details. His charts showed that 94% of the girls and 73% of the boys had at least one pair of shoes with heel taps on them. Altogether, they had tested 2,767 pairs of shoes, which worked out to an average of 5 pairs for every girl and 2 pairs for each boy—not counting sneakers, which weren't even counted at all. Out of all those shoes and boots, 78% had heel taps. Nearly every pair of boys' tapped-up shoes had toe taps on too (97%), as did almost three-fifths of the shoes that girls wore with heel taps (58%). [Note to readers: Excel spreadsheet available on request!]

Side taps were counted on only 4% of the girls' shoes but on one-third of the shoes that boys had heel taps on. Horseshoes (or sometimes full heel dance taps) were on 88 pairs of girls' shoes and on 286 pairs of boys' shoes, more than half of the shoes that boys had any taps on. By far the most common sized taps for girls were #5's and #6's (counted together because they were too hard to tell apart). A majority of girls' heel taps were that size—over 1,300 pairs of girls' shoes in all! Boys generally had #5's or #6's on the toes of their shoes while girls preferred #3's or #4's for the toes, as did boys for the taps they put on the sides of the soles of their shoes. Francisco also was working on a table that counted taps by what kind of shoes or boots they were on, but he got into an argument with Brittney about how to categorize certain kinds of boots and shoes, and so he didn't finish making that table.

When the students took a look at the numbers that Francisco had printed out, some of the girls got really annoyed.

"Hey, Brittney," said Megan. "We girls were the first ones to put taps on our shoes, but now, look! The boys are way ahead of us in some ways. They've got horseshoe taps on most of their shoes and toe taps on almost all of them! Plus they're way ahead of us on side taps. True, we've got a lot more shoes than they do and more of ours have taps than theirs do, but you have to admit the boys' taps are a lot bigger and louder than ours are."

Brittney listened to her friend as she examined Francisco's statistics. "Well, the thing is that most of us girls who have horseshoes on only have them on our boots, but guys put horseshoes on all their shoes—loafers, oxfords, whatever! You know, I think this afternoon I'm going to take all my flats and loafers over to Sam's and have him put horseshoes on them, and side taps too!"

So after school, Brittney gathered up all of her shoes except the two pair of boots that already had horseshoe taps on them and walked back to Main Street and into Sam's shop. Not surprisingly when she got there, there were already several kids waiting to have taps put on.

"Hey Carla," said Brittney to the girl she knew best. "Are you getting taps put on, too?"

"Hey, Brit. Yup, my mom just bought me these really cute sandals with the silver chain across the toes. I thought they should have taps too. I've never had taps on sandals before, though."

"What size taps you getting put on?"

"Oh, the usual—number 5's on the heels and 3's on the toes. What are you doing here? Don't you have taps on all your shoes already? Did you get some new shoes, too?"

"Well, no. Actually I want to take the heel taps off of these and get horseshoe taps put on instead."

Carla looked into the bag Brittney was carrying her shoes in. "Horseshoes on _all_ of those?"

"Well, on whatever ones Sam says they can go on."

"How come?"

Brittney lowered her voice and spoke in a whisper. "Well, did you see in Francisco's chart that most of the boys' shoes have horseshoes on them? I don't think that's right since us girls were the first to have taps on our shoes. We need to show them we're just as good."

Brittney's whisper was overheard by the two other students in the shop, both of them boys from her school. Ralph White, a 10th grade boy, called out to her: "Hey chump! No way girls are going to have taps as big as the guys do. Wait till you see the ones Sam's putting on my new cowboy boots."

"Yeah," called out his friend Ramon. "When Kathleen checked my boots yesterday, she said she'd seen full heel taps only on dance shoes before. She'd never seen them on guys' biker boots!"

"Yeah," said Ralph. "That's what I'm getting on mine, too! Full heel taps. Can't get any bigger than that!"

"Fuck off," answered Brittney, a little annoyed. "Everyone has big taps on their boots. I have double horseshoes on my harness boots. But I'm going to get horseshoes on all my loafers and flats. I'll bet you don't have 8 pairs of shoes with horseshoes on them, do you?" she said confidently.

"Hell, no, I don't even _own_ 8 pairs of shoes." replied Ramon. "I actually have to work to pay for my clothes. Not like you bitches who just have 'daddy' buy them for you."

This could have gotten even more contentious, but just then Sam came out with the shoes he'd just applied taps to. First, he gave Carla back her cute sandals, now with gleaming silver #5 heel and #3 toe taps. And then Ralph's cowboy boots with full-heel aluminum dance taps on the heels and continental taps covering several inches at the front of the soles. Ralph proudly showed them off to Brittney and Carla, and then both boys marched haughtily out of the store, laughing hard with their boots clicking loudly on the sidewalk outside.

After the boys left, Carla turned to Brittney, "Those creeps! They think they're so hot."

Sam shook his head sympathetically, "Yeah, boys will be like that. But they'll melt when they see and hear you coming in your shoes, no matter if your taps are smaller than theirs. Ya know what though, miss?" he said, speaking to Carla. "I could put the same kind—full heel dance taps—on your sandals if you want. Then you could show them you're just as good as them. Would you like me to do that for you?"

Carla turned to Brittney. "What do you think, Brit?"

"Sure. Sounds like a great idea. I think I'll get some of those dance taps on my shoes too!"

So Sam took back Carla's sandals that he'd just tapped up and replaced the #5 heel taps with Capezio duo-tone heel taps. As he brought them back to her, he said, "These are even better than the ones I put on those boys' shoes. These have two sounds—see?" And he showed Carla how the heel-strike made one sound and then lifting up the heel made a second sound. "So it's almost like you have two different taps on your heels!"

"Hey, Sam, that is ultra cool!" said Brittney. "Carla, you're going to love those! I'm so jealous! And they look fantastic on your new sandals!"

Carla beamed with pride. Then Sam finally turned to Brittney. "So what brings you in here today, Brittney? I see you have a big bag with you. Are those new shoes?"

"No, Sam, these are all old ones. I want to replace the taps on these with horseshoes and also get side taps on. Can you do that?"

"Well," replied Sam. "Maybe I can, maybe I can't. Course, I'm not making any money on all of this. I wish you'd asked for horseshoes to begin with!"

"Yeah, well I'm sorry I didn't too. I didn't realize how much I wanted to have them until I started seeing horseshoes on guys' loafers and oxfords at school."

"Well, Brittney. Show me each pair, and I'll let you know."

So Brittney showed Sam each pair of shoes she'd brought in. First, the ones she was wearing that day--her Bass Weejun penny loafers with the #8 heel taps.

"Those #8 taps are already pretty big, but if you want, I can take them off and put horseshoe taps on those. The horseshoes would look and sound really good on those Weejuns. Do you want side taps on them?"

"Yes, please. Would #5's fit on the sides? That's what's on the toes."

"Well, because of the bend of the sole, I'd suggest putting #3's on the sides, o.k.?"

Brittney nodded her head. "Then what about these?" She held up her black tassel loafers that had #7's on the heels.

"Sure, horseshoes will work on those too. But I wouldn't put side taps on them."

"Oh? Why not?"

"The soles are too thin. Your feet will hurt from the taps. I'll do it if you want to, though."

"No, that's o.k. Just the horseshoes on those. Can you do double horseshoes then?"

"Sure, and I'll put the back two nails only on the bottom horseshoe so you'll make more noise that way, just like on your harness boots." Sam had an amazing memory for the taps he'd put on all the girls' and boys' shoes.

Brittney went through each of the other shoes she'd brought with her. Sam agreed to put horseshoes and side taps on her chunky heel loafers ("they're the smallest horseshoes I have, but they fit pretty well—as long as you don't mind if they hang over the edge of the heel just a little bit"). He put Capezio dual-tone dance taps, like Carla's, on Brittney's knee-length dressy boots, but he said her skimmer flats were too soft to take horseshoes or dance taps and the soles too thin for side taps. All in all, though, Brittney was very pleased. Counting her two pair of boots at home, she now had 5 pairs of shoes with horseshoes along one pair with full heel aluminum taps. As the two girls left the shop, Brittney in her horseshoed Weejuns and Carla in her Capezio dance tap sandals, Carla offered Brittney one of her Marlboro Lights. They walked along Main Street for several blocks together, chatting and smoking as girls do, before they split up for their respective homes. Mostly they talked about how the girls were on their way back to taking the lead in being the tap champions of Forest Glen.

The next week, when the tap-check committee started re-checking the shoes that they'd already checked before, Brittney convinced the other girls on the committee, Felicity, Kathleen, and Megan, that they needed to be more active in getting girls to upgrade their taps. So a lot of conversations went like this:

"Hey, Jessica. You're picked to be checked."

"But," replied Jessica, "you already checked these shoes. See, look at the taps on them. There's no way they'll hurt the floors." Jessica sat down on the checking chair, crossed her legs and raised one of her chunky-heeled platform loafers up so Brittney could see the bottom of the heel. Her metal taps were so worn down, they were starting to show the edge of the rubber heel.

"Yeah, I know," said Brittney. "But Jessica, those loafers just scream for bigger taps—and look how worn down they are already!" She brought her ruler up to measure the heel. "See, your taps are just size #4's! Those heels could even take horseshoes on them! Or, at least #6's. And those platforms would be awesome if you had side taps and toe taps on them. Why don't you have Sam put new bigger taps on the heels and while you're at it put some on the soles too? See, I have horseshoes and side taps now on all my loafers—like these Weejuns," and she slipped off one of her loafers and showed it to the girl.

Jennifer, like any of the other girls whose shoes Brittney checked that day, was likely to be impressed enough with Brittney's aura and confidence that, even if she hadn't thought of replacing her taps with larger ones, she'd think to herself, "Well, why not? If Brittney can, then I can too!" So right after school, she'd march herself over to the shoe repair store and tell Sam that "these taps are too small for these shoes, Sam. I want horseshoes on the heels. Can you put horseshoes on and also some nice-sized taps on the toes and on both sides of the soles?"

The next morning, Jessica would seek out Brittney. "Brittney, you were right! Horseshoes are sooo much better on these. And the side taps are cool sounding too!" She'd drag her heels and then slide her soles backwards so Brittney could hear the sounds made by both sets of taps. "Brittney, can you re-check these now so your records will be up to date?"

By the middle of May, the number of girls who had horseshoe taps on their shoes had tripled! And now 10% of the girls' shoes had taps on the sides of the soles. That was still not as many girls as boys, but Brittney felt they were fast catching up and she was satisfied they were on their way back to being in charge.

But first the girls had to learn to walk all over again. When the girls started getting horseshoe and side taps put on their loafers and flats, sometimes they slipped around more than they wanted to. The boys (and some of the girls who'd already put horseshoes on) helped to show them how to walk so that they wouldn't slip—putting less weight on their heel-strike and pushing off more with their toes—either that, or dragging their heels along the floor and sliding forward on their soles. The latter method was preferred by most of the girls because they could make more noise that way and that was the whole purpose of having taps on their shoes. Pretty soon, the passing period resembled a skating rink, with boys and girls holding hands and sliding along the floors in their steel-bottomed shoes. And the noise, the big wonderful noise of taps—it was everywhere!


	15. Taps and the Women of Forest Glen

At first, it was hard to say what started the women of the town of Forest Glen along the path they took. One might not think that women in their 20's, and particularly not women in their 30's or 40's would simply copy the styles and fads of the teenage set--at least no one in town ever remembered anything like that happening before. And it would be hard to think that just a few women, like stylish marketing manager Mrs. Johnson or adventurous English teacher Ms Wilms, could influence hundreds of young and middle-aged women in this town to follow their lead so quickly. Some thought that the person most responsible was Sam DiMaggio, the shoe repairman, who'd been known to suggest metal taps to women who came into his shop and who had a way with words and a debonair appearance that might melt the most obstinate woman in town. But whatever the cause, it was pretty clear by late Spring that young, attractive women-- professionals, office workers, salesladies, waitresses, bargirls, and even teachers and nurses--all over town were beginning to walk around clickety-clicking to and fro with steel-plated heels, just like Brittney and her friends at Forest Glen High.

The types of shoes women wore with steel taps on them had more variety than what you'd see on at the high school. Sure, there were the typical daytime wear of loafers and flats and mid-heel pumps that women had taps attached to. But tap-wearing even extended to the rubber-soled working shoes of waitresses, nurses, and sales clerks, who had to be on their feet all day at the restaurant, hospital, or chain store where they worked. When Sam was first asked by Peggy Alonzo, a 40'ish ash-blonde waitress at Greg's Lunchroom located almost next door to Sam's Shoe Repair, to put metal taps on her rubber-bottomed shoes, he declined.

"I'd like to do that Peggy, but on those rubbery heels, metal taps would sound too much like little girls' dancing shoes, and they might not even stay attached!"

But waitresses like Peggy are even more obstinate than the Italian shoemaker, and she wouldn't take 'no' for an answer. Then Sam remembered that he had some old-timey iron taps from England that came with built-in prongs as well as holes for nails, and he recalled that they didn't clink like the Eagle taps do on soft rubber heels. So that's what he started using for the nurses and others who came in for taps on that type of shoe.

But for the most part, the women in Forest Glen who most often asked Sam for metal taps for their footwear were professionals and office workers who had to look their best for business. They usually wore dressy chunky-heeled pumps and loafers and colorful flats and sandals to work and more party shoes when they went out at night. One Friday afternoon, not long after the brief student strike at the high school over their right to wear metal taps, Brittney ran into one of these young women professionals--someone, in fact, who Brittney had just met three weeks earlier and who hadn't been wearing taps then, at least not that Brittney had noticed.

On that Friday, just as Brittney was finishing her smoking break and going back to her cash register station at Reed's Drug Store in the mall, she heard some unmistakable tappity-tap sounds ahead of her. She looked up and saw that the sounds were coming from some dressy beige-and-brown mid-heeled sandals worn by a stylish twenty-something blonde woman--they looked rather large on those chunky 2-inch heels--could even be #5 Eagle taps, she thought. Brittney immediately recognized the woman as Kelly Clark, the reporter who had interviewed her the day of the strike. Brittney called out to her and soon they were in animated conversation.

Ms. Clark, as it turns out, had been intrigued by the students' clear enjoyment of the taps they had on their school shoes. The very next day, as she told Brittney, she had gone into Sam's Shoe Repair and had him fit some smallish #3 taps to the heels of the dressy flats she had been wearing that day. She liked the clicky sounds they made so much that every day for the next week, she'd brought in three or four more pair of her shoes to become steel-plated. Now all of her flats, loafers, and sandals, even the dressy pair she was wearing that Friday afternoon, sported reasonably large half-moon taps at the heel and the toe. She'd also had steel heel tips put on the several pairs of 3" to 4" stiletto heels she wore to the television station each day.

"I even had Sam put full-heel dance taps on some cute red 2-inch pumps that I love to dance in, and--get this--I had my black platform boots fitted with horseshoe plates and also taps on the sides and front of the soles, just like the ones on the boots you were wearing that day at school when you were on strike!"

"Wow, Ms. Clark! You really have gotten into taps, haven't you!" cried Brittney. She was actually quite pleased that she and her high school friends had had such an effect on this stylish, slightly-older, and clearly more experienced, woman.

"Yeah, I guess I have," laughed Ms. Clark. "That morning when strike ended and I interviewed you on camera, you gave me the idea. But actually, the reason I ended up putting them on all of my shoes is that when I was leaving Sam's shop with my first pair of tapped-up shoes, I ran into a good friend of mine, Sally Olson. Sally and I both noticed that we each had metal taps on our shoes, and we started talking about them. Sally's an interior decorator, and I asked her about the marks and scratches on the floors that your principal was complaining about. She laughed and said it was an old wives tale and that she'd started wearing steel-tipped spike heels a few weeks earlier and hadn't noticed any effect on the floors of the places she was working in. She also said that she liked the clicky sounds that the steel spikes made, so she'd been taking all of her other shoes in to Sam's to have metal taps put on the heels and soles. So between your encouragement and Sally's example, I just went ahead and had all my shoes and boots done that way too!"

"I even ran a story on wearing taps on the 6:30 news one day that week. Did you see it?" asked Kelly.

"Shit! No! I didn't even hear about it!" cried Brittney. "I guess that's cuz me and none of my friends ever watch the news. That is so cool that you did that. I'd love to see the tape!"

"I will get a copy to you," replied Kelly. "I started the feature by talking about your strike at the high school, and I interviewed a girl from your school. I think her name was Cherie Schmidt."

"Oh, like was she sweet and cute, with a long blonde pony tail?" asked Brittney. Kelly nodded and smiled in affirmation. "I know her. I got her to put taps on her shoes even though her parents didn't like her doing that."

"Yes, that's what she told me, too," said Kelly. "But you'll never believe this. Cherie said that after awhile, not only didn't her mom mind Cherie having taps on her shoes, but Mrs. Schmidt decided she liked hearing the clicky sounds so much that she went and had metal taps put on some of her own shoes, too! I even interviewed her for the feature!"

"Wow!" replied Cherie. "So even old Mrs. Schmidt is wearing taps, huh?"

"Yeah," Kelly continued. "In the feature, of course I showed off the new taps I'd put on my own shoes. I had my cameraman photograph me from the back as I walked ahead in my shiny red flats, and he zoomed in on the back of the heels so the big metal heel taps could be easily seen. Then I changed into a bright yellow dress and put on my black patent leather 4-inch heel pumps and had him focus in on the gold-colored metal tips I'd put on their stiletto heels."

"Actually, it was one of the best segments I've done this year. I've heard from lots of women-- and from Sam DiMaggio at the shoe shop too--that it's inspired women all over town to go in and get metal taps attached to their shoes and boots!"

"I'm not surprised," said Brittney. "I've kind of been noticing adults in taps more lately, at least here at the mall where you can really hear the clicky sounds when people walk. But I didn't know that it was cuz of your news show, and, I guess, indirectly, because of me!"

That pleased Brittney a great deal. Kelly got Brittney's address so she could send her a tape of the feature segment she'd broadcast; then she continued on into the store to buy the items she'd come there for. As Kelly walked on, Brittney thought about how awesome she looked in her classy bright blonde hair, her spiffy pants suit, and her heeled sandals, and of course she loved the clicky sounds her shoes made as they tapped against the store's tile floor. But also, she reflected, "What a cool job Kelly has. Being a reporter would be so much more fun than just working this stupid cash register."

In a few minutes, when Kelly came by again to make her purchases Brittney asked her what it was like to be a news reporter.

"Brittney, it's awesome! I get to walk all around the town and meet lots of people who are always really nice to me. I don't know if it's because they all want to be on T.V., or what, but I have a great time doing this."

"I would love to be a TV reporter," said Brittney. "If there's any chance you could hire me as your assistant, that would be totally awesome!"

"Well, Brittney, we will probably have openings for a summer intern. I will let you know if that happens. One thing, though, you'd have to interview for the intern job with my boss, Mr. Woods, and he is a little demanding. I'll have to tell you about it someday, but not now--it's a long story, and I'm kind of in a hurry." So with a smile, Kelly turned and clicked her way out of the store, and into Brittney's dreams.


	16. Even the Librarian Does It!

Back at Forest Glen, English teacher Susan Wilms began to be more brazen in the shoes she wore to school, not only arriving in 4-inch steel-tipped stiletto heels once or twice a week, but also even wearing some brand new tall leather boots with 2 1/2-inch chunky heels she'd had horseshoe taps put on to impress John Baker with. She'd also taken to wearing black fishnet stockings with her high-heeled shoes and boots, and her skirts were getting shorter by the week--now significantly above her knees.

But rather than annoy the other teachers, Ms Wilms was creating a fashion statement that many of the other female teachers started to follow themselves. Over the next several weeks, a dozen other women at the school had started wearing shorter skirts, and each one of them accompanied their new Spring wardrobe with several new pairs of footwear, almost all accessorized with clicky-sounding metal heel and toe plates--perhaps to draw attention to their more visible legs! These fashion-setters were mostly classroom teachers, like Brittney's computer teacher, Miss Allen, and the always properly-dressed chair of the business education department, Mrs. Rogers. Also, Mrs. Jackson, the head counselor (who the students guessed had been wearing taps away from school anyway) had metal taps placed on several of the mid-heel pumps she wore to school. In addition, Alison Dexter, the principal's sexy young secretary, who didn't seem much older than the students, could now be seen and heard wearing large, noisy taps on her loafers (#8s), flats (#6s), and MaryJane t-straps (full-heel dance taps on those). In terms of high heels, only two other teachers besides Ms Wilms ever wore such shoes to work--wearing them was hard because teachers had to stand for much of the day--but both ladies followed Susan Wilms' lead and had steel heel tips put on them.

Besides their tapped-up shoes and shorter skirts, the women at Forest Glen that Spring seemed to have made a generally increased effort to looking attractive. Computer teacher Jen Allen and Allison, the principal's secretary, even followed Susan Wilms' example and had their dark blonde hair bleached to a platinum shade of light blonde. Susan had told Jen that her students paid more attention to her in class after she became a blonde, and Jen said she needed something to get kids to stop oogling at her legs so much as her shoe taps clicked and scraped along the computer room's tile floor. "Maybe lighter hair would do the trick for me too!" The next day she was a platinum blonde.

Apart from Ms Wilms, though, the woman at Forest Glen who changed the most that Spring turned out to be Sandra Abrams, the 40ish school librarian. Ms Abrams was quite shy, she'd never married (nor had anyone ever seen her with a man), and she dressed kind of like an older lady, with her dark brown hair in a bun, thick-rimmed glasses over her eyes, and long skirts and "sensible shoes"--black, brown, or tan oxfords all with broad, low heels. She was not a prime candidate to be putting taps on her shoes, at least as the students looked back on it. Besides, libraries are supposed to be quiet places for reading and studying, and Forest Glen's library was carpeted to assist that goal--a good thing given how many of the students--and teachers--were now walking around with noisy steel plates on their shoes and boots.

But one Monday morning, Sandra Abrams surprised everyone at school. Into the building she walked--a completely different woman. Her wrapped-up brown tresses now fell gracefully along her neck down to just below her shoulders--and her hair now had a bright layer of blonde over her natural color! No more glasses either—her frames had been replaced by contact lenses. And there was a noticeable click to her walk--Ms Abrams was wearing taps! The taps she had on that first day were quite ordinary, just #3s on the heels of her tan oxfords. But she herself must have decided that wasn't enough of a makeover, so the next day, she came to school in her brown oxfords and on these she'd had size #6 taps applied to the heels and #3 taps on the front of the soles. Then, by Friday, after she'd had time to purchase some new clothes to go along with her new hair color, she came in dressed to the nines--a flashy black blouse that set off her blonde hair, a short white skirt at least 2 inches above her knees, and some below-the-knee black chunky-heeled fashion boots with a slight platform sole that were outfitted with small horseshoe taps on the heels as well as two clearly visible taps (perhaps even #5s) on the sole of each boot, one on either side.

Everyone was abuzz trying to figure out what had come over Ms Abrams. Whenever one of her teacher colleagues or one of the students came up and asked her, they came away rather uninformed. Ms Abrams wasn't saying very much.

"Sandy, you look really nice this week. I like your hair! Where did you have it done?… And are those contact lenses?"

She'd reply only that she'd gotten the hairstyle idea from a magazine and that yes, her opthomologist had recommended her either getting contacts or the new laser surgery and she'd opted for the less drastic approach.

The students were typically a little more out there in their comments. "Hey, people, look! We have a new librarian! Did you take over for old Ms Abrams? Hey, you are a hotty! You better watch out with those steel taps on your shoes. I think that's against the rules for librarians."

Ms Abrams just smiled and went about her business.

Only Susan Wilms knew what was going on. But for awhile no one else knew she knew.

Although more than a decade separated Susan and Sandra, and although their personalities were miles apart, it turns out they had a lot more in common than anyone realized. In fact, they were half-sisters! When Sandra was seven, her father ran off with his secretary and she and her mom moved to the next county. Then her mom met and married another man, and a few years later Susan was born. Of course by the time Susan reached her teenage years, Sandra was out of the house, and they'd never really been close until this year when Susan joined her at Forest Glen. Sandra always thought Susan was childish and totally out-of-control—it's true, she had started smoking at 12, drinking not much later, had an abortion at 14, and got married for a brief time to some jerk named Wilms at 17, and none of that helped her image in Sandra's eyes. For her part, Susan regarded Sandra as a prude and a wet blanket. When Susan came to Forest Glen this year, neither sister wanted to even acknowledge the other. Neither one even mentioned their relationship to any of their colleagues. But gradually the two half-sisters started spending more time together and breaking down the walls that had separated them. Sandra had even moved into another apartment in Susan's building.

Then, during an after-school faculty meeting in early May Susan noticed Sandra staring at the new boys' physical education teacher, a rather handsome 35-year old ex-minor league baseball player named Jack Youngblood. Susan knew a little about Mr. Youngblood herself. A month or so before, as soon as she'd done her blonde-hair-and- taps makeover for John Baker, Jack had suddenly showed a strong interest in her.

"I like your new hair color," he said confidently as they were walking to their cars after school one day after baseball practice. "I'm partial to blondes, anyway."

"Not a surprise," thought Susan.

"But also," he continued, "I just love it that you have metal taps on your shoes. And big ones too! They are so good for you. They communicate something that's hard to describe, but, you know, the clicky sounds you make when you walk just make you sooo attractive!"

"Would you like to go out for a drink?" he asked.

But Susan wasn't interested in his type, and over the next week she'd given him the brushoff enough times that he no longer tried to hit on her. On the way home after the faculty meeting, Susan broached the subject.

"Hey Sandy, what do you think of the new baseball coach, Jack Youngblood?"

"What do you mean?" asked Sandra.

"You know, he's pretty good looking, isn't he?" replied Susan.

"Well, yes, I guess you'd say he is good-looking," said Sandra, trying very hard not to sound interested in the subject.

"I know something about him," Susan began. Sandra didn't say anything. Susan continued. "I know that he is really fond of blondes, and he told me he loves it that I have noisy metal taps on my shoes!"

"Well, why don't you go out with him?" Sandra asked, half expecting her sister to say that she'd already gone to bed with him.

"Definitely not my type," replied Susan as firmly as she could. "But I'll bet he could get interested in you! I also know he has a soft spot for librarians!" That, of course, was a lie, but she decided it wouldn't hurt to put the thought into her sister's head.

Sandra came over to Susan's for dinner that night, and by the end of the evening Susan was sure she had planted some ideas in her sister's head. She'd left out on the coffee table an article from a woman's magazine on hair styling—"Becoming the Blonde You Always Wanted to Be"—and a card from her beauty salon. When they were talking about the beautiful view out of her window, she also mentioned how her contact lenses enabled her to appreciate the wide vista visible from her porch. And during the evening she managed to fit into the conversation something about Sam DiMaggio, the shoe repairman, and about how nice he was and how her shoes never needed re-heeling any more.

Over the next week, Sandra paid special attention to Jack Youngblood, whenever she could notice him. She saw that, in fact, her sister was probably right. Every single time he went past a blonde teacher, or even a blonde female student, he always made a friendly comment. Plus she noticed that he responded immediately to the sound of metal taps on shoes, particularly on women's shoes. Sandra thought a lot about what her sister had said. She had to admit--she'd not had a crush on a man like this in quite some time. And she could see her time slipping away. She decided that she would go see her eye doctor as soon as possible and see if she could be fitted for contacts. That other stuff could wait.

Sandra was not the kind of person to make big changes suddenly. But sometimes events force changes to be made that had only been contemplated. One morning arriving at school, Sandra tripped on a step going into the building, and the heel from one of her oxfords became detached from the rest of her shoe. Rather than hobbling around for the rest of the day, she immediately went out to her car and drove into town to see if Sam DiMaggio could fix them while she waited. (None of the classes were scheduled into the library until the afternoon, and she knew her student assistant could handle the individual students who came by first period.)

As soon as Sandra walked into Sam's shoe shop, Sam could see what the problem was. Since there wasn't any other customer waiting, he suggested that Sandra sit down and he would repair the heel in no time flat. But over the next several minutes, no less than four women, all about her own age, mid-30s to mid-40s, came into the shop, one at a time. Each one of them, Sandra noticed, had bright blonde hair, although on two of them she could see dark brown roots showing at the temples, and on the other two, the blonde tint had clearly been applied to a layer of bleached hair that lay atop brunette hair underneath. That's just like the style I saw in Susan's magazine article, Sandra thought. Each of the women came in to retrieve some newly repaired shoes. But when they got their shoes back, not one of the women said anything about the heel repairs; instead, all they wanted to talk about was their new metal taps!

As the first customer held up her brown lace-up oxfords that Sam had handed back to her, she said, "Sam, I've wanted to have metal taps on my shoes for a long time, and I'm so glad it's fashionable to do so now. The taps look really nice on these shoes. I know I'm going to love walking around hearing the clickety-click sounds they make. Thank you!"

Sam gave the second woman a pair of black dressy 2-inch heeled loafers, and she responded, "I'm so glad you put large taps on the heels. On my other pair, I can hardly hear the taps when I walk. These will be much better! And the toe taps will be good too! Thanks!"

The third woman had come in for two pairs of her shoes--some mid-heel navy pumps and some white strappy sandals that looked just right for Spring. As she took them from Sam, she exclaimed, "These look good! But I want to hear what the taps sound like." She took one shoe from each pair and tapped it several times on the counter. "Wow! People will really hear me coming, won't they! I know my husband will love hearing me walk around the house in these sandals. And I can imagine what a great sound the taps on my pumps will make on the terrazzo floor at the garden club board meeting. I'm going to bring all my shoes in to have taps put on them!"

As for the last of the four blondes, she was so excited that she could hardly contain herself: "Sam, my boyfriend has wanted me to put taps on these loafers for the last two months! He will love them, especially the black ones with the horseshoe taps. And the navy blue ones look great too. The taps on the heels say "7" on them and the ones on the toes have a "5." Is that the sizes they are? Well, that is very nice. Thank you, Sam!"

As Sandra watched and listened to all of this, she began to feel like maybe her dark brown hair and quiet shoes were now actually quite unusual. She didn't like to stand out in a crowd, so now, with everyone else putting taps on their shoes, maybe her quiet shoes actually made her stand out more, not less. Combined with what her sister had said about Jack Youngblood liking women who wore metal taps on their shoes and had blonde hair, maybe it was time for her to bite the bullet. But something inside her held her back.

When the women came in to get their shoes, Sandra saw what a kind and gentle person Sam was. And when he called out to her that her shoe was ready, she decided to ask him about taps. "Mr. DiMaggio," she began. "Is every woman in town putting metal taps on their shoes?"

He gave a friendly chuckle. "It does seem like that, doesn't it? Well, I've had a lot of requests for metal taps lately. At first, it was the girls and boys at the high school. But in the last couple of weeks, ever since Kelly Clark ran that story about taps on the evening news, I've had dozens of women coming in asking to have taps put on their shoes. I'd say that at this rate pretty much every woman in town will have taps on her shoes in another month or two."

"O.K., then I guess I'd like to try them on this pair of shoes. Can you put some on the heels or are they too worn down?"

"No, the heels are fine for taps. What size would you like?" and he brought out his sample board with one tap of each different size.

"I guess these will be o.k.," she said, as she pointed to the #3 Eagle on the board. "They don't seem to be as large as the ones the women in here got today, but they will be fine for me for now."

"Shall I put some on the toes of the soles that I just fixed up," asked Sam.

"No, that's o.k.," replied Sandra. "The heel taps will be enough."

After Sam had applied the taps to Sandra's shoes and she'd paid for the repair and started to walk out of the store into the fresh air, it seemed like a fog around her suddenly started to lift. With every step she took, she became more and more comfortable with the clicky sound of her walking. Her gait seemed stronger and her bearing more self-assured. In fact, rather than going immediately back to her car and driving back to school, Sandra decided to walk around downtown for awhile. Normally, she'd feel guilty being away from her job in the middle of the school day. But today seemed different. She was in a strange mood, feeling even a little evil, and she didn't feel guilty at all.

After a couple of blocks, Sandra found herself directly in front of the beauty salon that her sister had recommended to her. She thought, o.k., I've gone part way. I have taps on my shoes. Tomorrow I'm going to get my contact lenses. But am I ready to become a blonde?

At that moment, who should cross her path but the very man whose attention she most desired—Coach Youngblood. She instantly recognized him and waved a hearty hello to him. Immediately, Mr. Youngblood broke out into a broad grin, and he started to wave back as he approached. But something strange happened. Jack walked right past Sandra, and instead ran into the embrace of another woman—apparently the person he'd been smiling and waving at in the first place. He hadn't even noticed Sandra standing there.

Sandra looked at Jack and his woman friend, as they walked off together, in animated conversation. The woman Jack had been so excited to meet was about her own age, maybe a bit younger. She was tall, though perhaps not as tall as herself, and had long, wavy bright blonde hair—consistent with what she'd come to understand about Jack's preferences. And there was no mistaking the silver steel stiletto heels she was wearing. Shiny spikes that glistened in the sunlight as she walked into the distance, but making loud clicks and scrapes with every step along the cement. Oh, how she longed to be the woman he was walking with.

But that chance meeting was the final straw. Looking straight ahead of her at the beauty salon, thinking about all the blonde women she'd seen that morning, Sandra decided it was time to get this done. She walked into the salon and asked the receptionist if there was a hairdresser available for a coloring job, and, luckily, there was. After calling the school to tell them she'd suddenly felt ill and had left and wouldn't be returning that day, she walked up to the hairdresser who'd started to welcome her and said, very seriously and matter-of-factly, "I'd like a coloring please—bleaching and permanent blonde tinting layered over my natural brown underneath— pretty much like that picture over there."

And with that, the prim-and-proper librarian, Sandra Abrams, in pursuit of her dream of a man, joined the legions of bleached-blonde, tap-wearing femmes fatales who had begun turning the town of Forest Glen upside down.


	17. Have Taps Will Travel

English teacher Susan Wilms had really fallen for high school student John Baker. She knew he preferred confident, independent girls like Brittney Davis, and she knew how to press his buttons—tough-looking outfits, bleached-blonde hair with dark roots showing, and huge and noisy metal taps on massively big boots. On their weekend trysts, she would wear a black leather jacket with racing and beer decals, silky blouses worn either open down the middle or tied up in front showing her belly ring and her new tattoo, a leather micro-skirt, and big oversized boots with noisy double-thick horseshoe heel plates, taps on the sides, and bumper plates on the toes. With that outfit and her hair now in a punk style of bleached white-blonde with dyed black roots, she looked tough, young, and sexy. She'd even figured out by watching him around Brittney and some of her friends that John liked to watch girls smoking cigarettes, so she took up smoking again, just as she'd done as a teenager. She loved how he stared at her as she took deep inhales and made smokey exhales.

To keep out of trouble with her colleagues at school, Susan limited her smoking to times when she was off campus, and her weekday clothing and footwear styles had a more acceptable shade of adult vampiness. In the shoe department, for example, at school she continued to wear steel-tipped stiletto heels, but also now more often wore open-toed sandals and ballet flats with number 3, 4 or 5 Eagle taps—whatever sized metal plate would fit on the smaller heels. After she got her punk-style haircut, on work days she covered it up by wearing a more conventionally styled ash-blonde wig. But on the weekends, Susan was a rocker! She loved to show off for John, and each Saturday -- their "play dirty day" -- they got in her Miata convertible, tore down the hill and out of town, and rolled into other towns, sometimes driving all the way to Port City, where it was easier for John to get into bars with a fake ID. To keep up with Susan, John developed an even stronger, tougher look than came naturally to this muscular almost-16-year-old. He'd invested in the coolest, toughest cowboy boots he could afford, and had triple-thick horseshoe plates attached to them, along with huge continental taps on the toes, and big #8's on the sides of the soles. All his shoes and boots now had horseshoe taps on them, even the loafers he wore around the house and the new dressy oxfords his mother still had him wear to church.

But as the Spring wore on, John got increasingly uncomfortable being Susan's boy-toy, and he found himself more interested in hanging out with girls closer to his own age. One afternoon, he'd come by Sam's Shoe Shop just to chat and pass the time away, and he found the shop filled with a gaggle of 7th and 8th grade girls from the middle school. They were all there to get metal taps put on their flats and loafers.

"Hey, John," called out Sam as he walked in the door. "What am I going to do with these girls!" he shouted over the din. "They all want taps on their shoes, and I can only do so much!"

The girls started ooohing and aaahing over John as this young handsome boy walked in wearing tough-looking engineer boots with double steel horseshoe plates and toe bumpers.

John looked around at the eight or nine really cute girls crowded into the shop, and he thought to himself, "hey, these girls are actually much closer to me in age than Susan Wilms is!" Then, he kiddingly asked the girls, speaking to no one in particular. "So, are you girls getting horseshoe taps put on your shoes?"

A tall girl with strawberry blonde hair named Megan, who seemed to be a leader among them, was the first to answer. "You wi-ish!" She said with a wry smile, feeling a little full of herself. "My sister says high school guys go nuts when girls have horseshoe taps on their shoes." All the girls around her giggled loudly. "No, we're just getting some half-moon taps put on our loafers and flats," and then she added, "so the heels won't wear down so fast!" She felt pleased with having thought of that response, something she'd heard her sister say one time to a disapproving aunt.

"John," Sam called out again. "I could get this done faster if you would come back here and help me."

"OK, boss," shouted John. And he took a running leap over the little door that separated the back of the shop from the customers' area, the shiny silver plates on the bottoms of his shoes easily visible to the girls as he jumped. Going over to where Sam was, he looked at all of the pairs of shoes in front of him. (Several of the girls had carried in one or two other pairs, in addition to the shoes they were wearing.)

"If you want," John offered, "I could put the taps on some of these shoes for you."

"That would be a big help if you thought you could do that."

"Sure I can. I've watched you plenty of times. I'd put the taps on my own shoes if I had the equipment you have…and if I didn't like coming in here so much!"

"O.K., then, why don't you put the heel taps on and pass the shoes over to me and I'll put the toe taps on. The toe taps are tougher because you have to cinch the nails to make sure they don't go through the sole."

"O.K. Sounds good. So what size are we putting on – number 7's?"

"No, for these girls – I think for most of them these are their first metal taps. I don't want to get into too much trouble with their moms, so I'm just putting on #3's on the heels and #2's on the toes. Here, use these half-inch nails for them."

So John picked up a random pair of shoes and looked them over, a pair of almost-new white skimmers with broad, flat heels – a shame to be putting such little taps on these, he thought to himself. He picked up one of the small size 3 Eagle taps from the box on the work bench, shrugged his shoulders, and went to work. He flipped the shoe over and placed it upside down onto the form-fitting anvil in front of him and placed the metal tap down onto the back of the heel. Then he turned the tap about 45-degrees to the outside and placed it right at the very edge of the heel, just as he'd seen Sam do for half-moon style plates – though he himself didn't put that style on his heels any more. He took the hammer Sam had put in front of him and gently tapped one of the nails through the leftmost hole in the metal tap until the nail made secure contact with the hard rubber of the shoe's heel. Then he pounded harder until the tap felt tight against the heel. Kind of a nice feeling, he thought. He did the same with a nail through the rightmost hole in the tap, and then a third nail through the center hole. After all three nails were in, he turned to Sam and asked, "Should I file the nails down on the machine, or are they o.k. like they are?"

"I'll do it, John; just pass the shoe over to me and go ahead and put the tap onto the other heel."

When John had finished both shoes, he put them down on the wooden bench. They made a small click as they landed. He thought, "Why bother? They don't make much of a sound." Then he picked up another pair of shoes -- some size 7 brown Bass penny loafers.

"Sam," he said as he looked closely at this second pair. "I really hate the idea of putting such little taps onto these penny loafers. Can't I put some bigger taps on them?"

"Well, I told you I didn't want trouble from the parents. But why don't you take the loafers out there, find out who they belong to, and ask the girl what size taps she wants," Sam suggested.

So John walked around to the front and raised the pair of loafers into the air. "Whose Bass pennies are these?" he called out.

Megan, the tall strawberry blonde he'd spoken with earlier yelled back, "Those are mine! Is there anything wrong? I hope you didn't mess them up or anything!"

"No, replied John. "I just wanted to make sure what size taps you wanted to have on these." He held up the size 3 Eagle tap and placed it against the heel of the loafer. "This is the size Sam gave me to put on." Megan walked up to inspect the tap more closely, and John looked her in the eyes and lowered his voice. "I was thinking that a pretty girl like you needs to have bigger taps on her shoes, especially on penny loafers. Probably you need horseshoe taps." He smiled. "In fact, if you had horseshoe taps on these, I know a couple of really hot 9th grade boys who would love to go out with you."

Megan turned to one of her friends and whispered something in her ear. Her friend whispered back, and then both girls blushed, red-headed Megan most obviously so.

"Umm, o.k. yeah, I think horseshoe taps would be good." Then she paused and turned to her friend again and blushed some more. "I sure hope my dad doesn't throw me out of the house," she whispered to her friend.

"These other taps," John continued, showing Megan the #3 Eagle plate. "Shall I have Sam put them on the toes, then?" Megan nodded yes and blushed again, plainly excited over the horseshoe taps she was going to have on her shoes.

John went back to the work area. "She wants horseshoes," he said to Sam quietly.

Sam laughed. "You put her up to that, didn't you." John shrugged his shoulders. Sam continued, "Well, o.k., but now all the other girls will be jealous. We better get all these taps put on before everyone comes back here to ask for bigger taps!"

John found several boxes of horseshoe taps, each box with different sized plates. "Which size do I put on these?" he asked Sam.

"How wide are the heels? Here let me check." Sam took his ruler and put it up to the heel of the loafer. "Hmm, two-and-an-eighth inches. That would be size 2-3 in the horseshoe type. I'm not sure I have any of those. Here, why don't you put on 3-4's. They're just a little larger and I'll bet that she'll like that the taps will stick out over the edge and people will see them easier."

So John took the loafers, two horseshoe taps, and a dozen nails from the box (the horseshoes required six nails each). He placed one horseshoe tap carefully over the heel, so it protruded just a bit on both the inside and outside and was just a bit over the edge at the back of the heel as well. He smiled as he thought how good the steel plate looked placed against the girl's loafer. As he started hammering the nails in, one by one, he started thinking about how that cutie of a girl was going to react seeing her tapped-up loafers and how she'd be clicking and scraping her shoes along the floor and sidewalk in just a few minutes. As he hammered away and the nail dropped into the heel, he actually felt like he himself was becoming a part of her heel too! He touched his finger to the edge to the metal plate. It made him all tingly just thinking about that strawberry-blonde cutie in her newly horseshoe-tapped loafers.

After he'd finished putting the taps onto both loafers, John held up the two shiny horseshoe plated heels to look at his handiwork. The tapped the heels against the steel anvil, and they made a really strong hard sound. Then he took the shiny steel plates and rubbed them against the front of his pants. He said to himself, "There's a piece of me now in these shoes. When that girl goes clickety-scrape-clicking all over town, I will be part of her every step!" He smiled. John had had his first delirious experience of tapping up a female's shoes. It was not to be his last.

After John and Sam had finished putting heel and toe taps on all 14 pairs of shoes, they started carrying them out to the girls, who started jumping around and yelling when they saw the two coming towards them.

"Hey, settle down girls. After we've brought them all out, we'll give each of you your shoes."

But the girls wouldn't wait. "Hey Carrie, here are yours!" "Michelle! Aren't these red MaryJane's yours? Here, take them!" "Cool! Let me try them on and see what the taps sound like!"

As each girl took her shoes in her hands, she would turn them over, look fondly at the metal plates underneath, and rub her fingers across the tap. Then, she'd slip the shoes on her feet, and stomp or scrape her feet on the floor to hear the sound the taps made. At first, the girls were pretty excited. But then everyone saw the horseshoe taps on Megan's loafers, and several girls' jaws dropped.

"Wow! Megan! Those are awesome! How come you got to have horseshoe taps put on yours?"

"I ASKED for them, of course!" replied Megan haughtily. She let her steel-plated loafers drop to the floor. They made a loud CLANG, and all the other talk in the room came to a halt. Megan slipped her feet into her shoes, each loafer making a distinct scrape along the floor as her foot settled into it. And then she raised one leg behind her and swing it forward, the large steel heel plate making a long scraping sound as it hit the floor. Every other girl stared at her in awe. She beamed with pride.

"Mr. DiMaggio! That's so unfair!" cried Carrie, a 7th grader with a cute little pouty expression. "I want taps like those on my shoes, too!" Several other girls echoed Carrie with similar demands.

"See," Sam turned to John. "You can't just leave well enough alone, can you?" Sam smiled as he said this. "Now they're all going to want me to take these taps off their shoes and put on bigger ones."

But soon the girls just started enjoying the little clicky sounds their feet made with the taps on. They spilled out of the store and onto the sidewalk in front, testing out their taps by dragging their heels along the cement. They didn't leave, though. They were still talking about Megan's horseshoe taps. Carrie and a few others went back inside, and when Sam and John had finished talking, she spoke up: "So sometime can we exchange these taps for horseshoes instead?"

Sam replied, "Sure, some time you can. But not today. I've got too many other shoes in here that need repairing." So Carrie and the others walked outside again and told their friends that they could come back and get bigger taps put on. That seemed to satisfy them and they skipped off, happy at joining the tap-wearing crowd. Still, it was Megan who was the princess, and she led the girls down the street, her horseshoe taps shining in the setting sun visible to all the girls behind her.

After the girls left, John had an idea. "Sam, that anvil I was working on back there. That's an extra one, right? And it looks like it can be unscrewed from the workbench and used on its own."

"Yeah, I guess it can. What are you thinking?"

"Well, I was thinking, I could go around with that anvil and a hammer and some nails and taps and go to the girls' homes and put on bigger taps for them and maybe even they'd want taps put on their other shoes too. Maybe some of their moms would want taps on their shoes too, or maybe they've got brothers and sisters who would, or even some of their dads! In fact, now that I think about it, there's probably a lot of people around this area who would go for having taps on lots of their shoes, if it was easy for them to get them all fixed up at once. I could be like a traveling shoe repairman!" He laughed out loud at this idea.

"Well," said Sam, "that's not a bad idea! Why don't you come around tomorrow afternoon, and I'll see if I can help set you up in business! I'll show you how to put taps on the soles, and to take off the old taps in order to put new ones on."

So the next day, John went back to Sam's and got a lesson in putting taps on different kinds of shoes. There were plenty of shoes to practice on, as several women and a couple of men had left their shoes with Sam for new heels and taps. He even learned how to pull old rubber heel tips off of stiletto heels and replace them with new metal ones. Then he gathered all the equipment he needed – anvil, hammer, screwdriver, pliers, nails, and horseshoe and Eagle taps in a variety of sizes – and put everything in a wheelbarrow and got ready to cart it all off.

"So where are you headed first, John?" asked Sam.

"Actually, I'm off to the park across from the middle school. This morning I saw a few of the girls from yesterday afternoon, and I told them I would meet them there."

When John got to the park, waiting for him were three of the girls who'd had their shoes tapped up at Sam's the day before, including, of course, the cute little 7th grader, Carrie, who'd complained so loudly at not having horseshoes put on her shoes.

"Yay! I'm glad you came!" Carrie shouted to John. "So will you take these little taps off my flats and put some horseshoes on like you put on Megan's shoes yesterday?"

John took a look at Carrie's little pale blue ballet flats. "I can put bigger taps on these than you have on now, but I don't think the horseshoes would work on those. The heel looks too fragile. Horseshoes are much better on loafers and heavier shoes, like boots. But I can put these taps on," and he held up some 2-inch long #5 Eagle taps for Carrie to see.

She said, "Well, I guess that's o.k., but I've got a pair of cowboy boots at home and some loafers too. Can you just come over with your stuff and put horseshoe taps on my boots and loafers at my house?"

John replied, "That's exactly what I was thinking! First, let me put the #5's on your ballet flats and do the other girls' shoes, and then we'll go over to your house."

So Carrie watched as John took the #3 taps off of the heels of her flats, replaced them with somewhat larger #5's, and then started to work on the other two girls' shoes. On Michelle's MaryJane's, he also put on #5's. The third girl, Jessica, had worn black tassel loafers the day before, and those were the ones that Sam had put #3 taps on. But today, she was wearing slingback sandals, so John told her the best he could do with those was to put #5's on the heels, just like on the others girls' shoes. "Can I have toe taps, too?" "Sure," John replied, and he put #2's on the toes of Jessica's slingbacks.

"If you came over to my house, could you put horseshoes on my loafers, like you're going to do with Carrie's?" asked Jessica. "I live right down the block from her."

"And on mine too," piped in Michelle. "I've got penny loafers at home."

"Sure," replied John. "Let's all go together."

So John and his portable tap-mobile, himself dragging his double-horseshoed engineer boots along the sidewalk, led this little troupe of middle-school girls, now all tapped up in their flats and sandals, down Park St. and into the adjoining neighborhood. As this little gang made their way to their first stop, Carrie's house, several kids came up to them and asked what was going on. When the girls explained, every one of the inquirers said that they wanted John to put taps on their shoes too—from an 8th grade boy whose older brother already had horseshoe taps on his boots to a pair of 10 year-old twin sisters, who ran back in their house to ask their mom.

But John couldn't stop for them. Carrie and the others had run ahead, and John didn't want to lose sight of the girls. At the next corner, he saw them cross the street and go into the 2nd house on the next block. When he reached the house, he unloaded his wheelbarrow at the foot of the porch steps. In a moment, the girls returned, each holding a pair of Carrie's shoes that Carrie wanted taps put on—some bright red cowboy boots, her brown penny loafers, and a pair of patent leather MaryJane flats like Michelle was wearing.

"It's o.k. if you put number 5's on the MaryJane's, but you'll put horseshoes on the others won't you?" asked Carrie, batting her plaintive blue eyes at John.

"Sure, if you think you can stand the noise!" John laughed, only somewhat in jest.

"I would love them," Carrie said dreamily. "Megan wore her loafers to school today—the ones you put horseshoe taps on yesterday," she clarified. "And they weren't too loud. They were just right!"

So John measured the heel width of Carrie's loafers, found the right sized taps for them—just a little wider than the heel itself—and started hammering the nails through the tap holes. The noise of the hammering, though, brought some action at Carrie's front door.

"What is going on out here, Carrie Larson?" shouted a woman behind the screen door. John looked up and saw an attractive woman in her mid-30's, blue eyes and blonde hair, carrying a little infant.

"Mah-ahm," yelled Carrie. "It's o.k. This is John Baker. He's just fixing my shoes."

"What's wrong with your shoes, Carrie?" her mom shouted back. Then she opened the screen door and came out on the porch. "Oh, hello Michelle, Jessica," acknowledging her daughter's friends. John had stopped his tapping, momentarily, mid-way through attaching the horseshoe plate to the second loafer.

"And what is it that you are doing to my daughter's shoes, young man?" Mrs. Larson asked sternly, looking down at John's handiwork. She stared at the small brown loafers, now steel-plated all over the heels. "Are those horseshoes you are putting on her shoes?"

John and Carrie both started talking at once. Carrie was louder, though, and made her appeal more directly: "Mah-ahm! I ASKED him to put them on. Megan got horseshoes on her loafers yesterday. I really, really, really want to have them on my shoes. They are so cool! Michelle and Jessica are going to have them put on too, right after we finish here." The other girls nodded and smiled.

"Ma'am," John intoned. "Your daughter and all her friends were begging Mr. DiMaggio at the shoe repair shop yesterday to have the larger taps like these put on their shoes. But, well, he didn't want to put them on unless you parents approved, so we put small taps on their shoes instead. But the girls were really insistent, so I agreed to come over today and put them on here. I would have asked you about them if I knew you were home. Anyway," he added, "Sam—er, Mr. DiMaggio—said he thought that well-made loafers and cowboy boots like your daughter's would be fine with horseshoe taps on them."

"Well," Carrie's mom started to reply, "don't you think these girls are a little young to be walking around advertising themselves in this way? After all, taps that large are kind of sending a message, aren't they? I mean, these girls are only 12 years old!"

"Please mom!" yelled Carrie, now frantic that her mom was going to make John take off the taps even before she'd had a chance to wear them.

"Ma'am," John interrupted, trying to diffuse the situation. "I'll do whatever you like, but I really think your daughter will be fine with these taps on. I don't think she wants to have horseshoe taps on all her shoes. She just wants them on these loafers and those red cowboy boots. She likes the smaller half-moon taps she has on her flats that's she's wearing now." Carrie raised the heel of one of her flats so her mom could see the taps, which she had shown her last night anyway (although of course last night the flats had smaller taps on them than they did now).

Carrie's mom looked at the taps on her daughter's flats. Compared to the horseshoe taps, these #5 half-moon taps looked small—although still a bit large for the little heels they were on. But she didn't really have the ambition to fight her daughter over this. Her little baby was giving her enough trouble with his constant screaming at night. And besides, she thought, even Kelly Clark, the local news reporter, had said that big metal heel taps were now fashionable and that Kelly herself had horseshoe taps on her platform boots. In fact, thought Mrs. Larson, thinking about her own footwear and wanting to stay in fashion herself, I really should think about getting taps for my shoes, too.

Carrie's mom was ready to compromise. "I guess cowboy boots would look all right with horseshoe taps on them, but why on loafers?" She paused and thought some more. "Well, what's done is done. O.K., but just those two pair." She looked at the MaryJane flats that Jessica was holding. "Are those your MaryJanes, Carrie? You may NOT put horseshoe taps on those. I paid too much good money for them."

"Well that's the thing, mom," said Carrie. "Since you paid so much money for them, don't you want them to keep their shape, and not get run down? That's what the taps will do for them, see?" And she held up the bottoms of her flats again for her mom to see.

"Yes, those size taps are o.k. on the MaryJane's, but not horseshoes."

"Cool, mom!!!!! Thank you so much!!!!" and Carrie ran over and hugged her mother.

"In fact," continued Mrs. Larson, "John?…it's John, right?" He nodded. "Why don't you bring your equipment inside. When you finish with Carrie's shoes, there's something else you can do for me." She pulled John by the arm away from the girls and walked with him across her front yard, speaking softly so only he could hear. "I think Carrie's probably right about how taps help protect the investment in your shoes…especially large steel taps. Do you think so?" John nodded. "Well, I have at least a dozen pair of nice shoes—heels, dressy loafers, sandals, flats, and four or five pairs of really expensive boots. If it wouldn't be too much trouble,…" and she stopped and gave John a wink and a smile, "I'd like it very much if you could put metal taps on the ones you think could take them. Some of the dressy heeled shoes have rather small heels, and I know that small taps don't stay on long, so I think you'd better put on the largest size taps that you could fit on them. Oh, and one other thing. I have one pair of really nice cowboy boots, with Eagle feather stitching along the sides, and I think horseshoe taps would be especially nice to have on them."

John smiled. "Sure thing, Mrs. Larson." She finally let go of John's arm, and the two of them walked back to where the three girls were examining Carrie's nearly ready horseshoe-tapped loafers.

"Michelle and Jessica," she said. "I think you're going to have to wait to have John put horseshoe taps on your shoes. He's going to be pretty busy for the next hour or so in here. In fact, John, won't you stay for dinner?" She picked up Carrie's loafers, turned them over to admire their shiny steel-plated bottom side, and led everyone back inside the house.


	18. How Good Girls Go Bad

Spring had been a very busy time for Brittney Davis. First, now she was in charge of checking all of the students' shoes and boots for sharp edges on their metal taps—most of the other kids had gotten bored by this job after the first week or two, so Brittney carried it on almost all by herself after that. Also, her hours at Reed's Drug Store had expanded to three afternoons and evenings each week, almost 20 hours altogether, and when she wasn't at work, she was usually out on a date. Guys were always asking her out because she was known as an "easy lay" although that was a lot more talk than action. But unlike a lot of the girls, she wasn't interested in a serious relationship, and she didn't get jealous when a guy she'd just made out with the night before was seen the next day with his arm around another girl. It was pretty well known, though, that if you wanted to go out with Brittney, you'd better be someone who liked to walk tall, look tough, and, not surprisingly, have your shoes or boots fitted with a lot of steel plating on the bottom. As much as Brittney liked having taps on her shoes, she also liked to compete with guys over who could be the noisiest and flashiest wearer of shoe taps.

Although Brittney would go out with almost any guy at least once as long as he'd impressed her with big steel plates on his boots, most of her repeat dates were with older guys--seniors or guys who'd left school already--guys who had their own cars, and could get her into bars and night clubs. It's not that she was an alcoholic; she just liked having a good time laughing and flirting, and she'd learned that bars were the best places for doing that. Kevin was one of Brittney's favorite dates because he could always get her past the bouncer. Kevin was a senior at County Voc-Tech High who lived along Brentwood Road, but he seemed to be living mostly on his own—at least whenever Brittney was over his mom was "spending the night at her boyfriend's."

Another way that Brittney got into bars was by hanging out with her English teacher, Susan Wilms. When John Baker told Susan he didn't want to go out with her for awhile, she threw herself madly into the young adult bar scene, and when Brittney tagged along, she could usually get in. What bar would turn down two hot platinum blondes who came sauntering inside, lit cigarettes flashing between their fingers, and wearing revealing tops, micro-skirts and knee-length boots with steel horseshoe taps on them!

Often, Brittney and Susan would end up meeting Kevin at a bar and after the women had had several drinks, and had exhausted themselves talking and joking around with every man in the bar, he and one of his buddies would end up taking both of the women back to his place. Sometimes, though, it wasn't just two guys along for the fun but three or four. And then they'd have to scout out some other girls in order to make it "even."

As it happened, Kevin (and sometimes his mom) lived two doors down from one of Brittney's high school acquaintances, Cherie Schmidt—the very same 15-year-old Cherie Schmidt who'd barely got up her courage to have taps put on her shoes just a few months ago, the girl whom Kelly Clark had interviewed along with her mom on her local news story about the tap-wearing fashion in Forest Glen. On this particularly warm Sunday evening in May, Brittney, Susan, Kevin, and three of his buddies were all loudly talking and singing as they paraded down the middle of Brentwood Road, all six of them making incredibly noisy scraping sounds with their steel heel plates dragging along the blacktop. Cherie and her good friend Kelly Johnson, who'd just turned 16 the previous week, were sitting on the front porch swing watching and listening to all the commotion out in the street in front of them, and watching the glow from several cigarettes accompanying the group's movement. They also noticed sparks coming from the road just where the kids were walking which they figured must be from the scraping of their metal taps, seeing that they'd already noticed some sparks at night coming from their own taps when they dragged them really hard along the cement.

"Hey, Cherie," said Kelly. "That's Brittney Davis walking with those guys!" "Hey, Brittney!" Kelly yelled out.

Brittney strained to see who it was in the dark calling to her.

"Its us! Cherie Schmidt and Kelly Johnson! We're on Cherie's porch!"

"Who's that?" asked Tom, one of Kevin's friends.

"Oh, that's one of those stupid goody-goody girls," replied Kevin. "She and her parents have been really nasty to my mom." Then he added, thinking about his neighbor Cherie, "Her mother especially—what a bitch she is!"

"Hey, wait a minute, they're girls aren't they!" Tom said. "We need two more girls. Are they cute girls?"

Brittney answered, "Actually, they're really cute." Tom turned to Brittney. "Brittney, go over and talk to them. Get them to come with us."

Brittney was already on her way, sauntering loudly up to Cherie's driveway, cigarette in hand, where the two girls came off the porch to meet her.

"Hey Cherie. Hey Kelly," Brittney called to them. "We're going over to Kevin's. You know Kevin?," she asked Cherie. "He lives right over there," and she pointed to the somewhat run-down yellow shingle home just beyond the oak tree that Susan and the four guys had just walked passed.

"Yeah, I know him," said Cherie. "My parents think his mom is trash. I'm positive they wouldn't let me go over there."

"Well, they don't need to know, do they!" Brittney said rhetorically. "Just tell your mom I came by and you're going on a walk with me…which is true, right?"

So Cherie yelled through the window to her mom that she and Kelly were going on a walk with Brittney, and they'd be back in an hour. After her mom yelled back an unsuspecting o.k., the three girls took off running and caught up with the others just as they were going inside.

When Kevin turned on the light, Cherie and Kelly saw for the first time that Susan Wilms was part of the group. They almost didn't recognize her, though, because of her punk platinum haircut, which she usually covered over at school with a wig. Once they realized it was her, they were totally floored!

Susan greeted them. "Hey girls, how's it going?" The girls smiled, but were still too dumbfounded to say anything. Then, hoping to break the ice, Susan introduced them around: "This is Tom, Blair, Mike, and Kevin. Guys, this is Kelly and Cherie. They're in my sixth period class. Oh, and girls, you'd better not call me 'Ms Wilms' here—tonight I'm Susan, o.k.?"

"Geez, Ms Wilms…I mean 'Susan,'" said Kelly. "We didn't expect to see YOU here! And you look so different!"

Susan tried a lame but quick explanation: "Brittney and I have become really good friends." Then, putting on a seductive expression on her face, she added, "And see, she's introduced me to some really hot guys!" Then she made a playful stab at 19-year-old Blair's groin.

Brittney interrupted, "Yeah, Susan and I go out bar-hopping at least once a week! You should come with us some time."

Cherie was confused. "But you're only like 14 aren't you?"

Brittney clarified the situation: "Well I'll be 15 in September. But no matter, I can get into most places."

Just then Kevin called out from the kitchen, "Who wants some weed?"

"Sure, Kevin, bring it out," answered Brittney. "You girls smoke pot, don't you?" she asked Kelly and Cherie, sort of as an afterthought.

The girls nodded, not willing to say 'no' at this point. In truth, Cherie had only even tried smoking a cigarette once before, and Kelly was only a little more experienced in that area. Tom put on some music to set the mood. Then the conversation started flowing, and for the moment Cherie and Kelly started to get more comfortable. But then Susan lit a joint, took a drag and passed it on to Tom who then passed it on Cherie. Cherie tried to look like she knew what she was doing, but it was clear she didn't, and the others gave her some good natured applause. Tom gave her a little instruction, and that helped both girls see what to do. When Kelly's turn came, she almost looked natural. As the joints were passed around, the conversation moved from smoking grass to cigarette smoking to parents and then to dating and finally to making love.

Brittney sat on Kevin's lap and the two of them started to kiss, and Susan soon paired off with Blair, going into another room. Tom and Mike went into the kitchen for a moment.

Cherie turned to Kelly and said, softly and somewhat tentatively, "Maybe we'd better go." But she was hoping that her friend would convince her otherwise, and Kelly, to her relief, replied to her, "No way! I don't get to do this kind of thing very often and I'm not going to pass it up. It's like a 16th birthday present for me!" She paused just for a moment. "So which of the guys do you want to be with?"

Cherie whispered back, "Tom's kind of nice." Kelly replied, "O.K., then I'll go with Mike." Meanwhile, of course, Mike and Tom were talking about how to divide up the girls between themselves, and luckily they made the same split as the girls did. So when they came back into the living room, the four of them paired off as if they were already couples.

Tom and Cherie sat down on a sofa, and Tom put his arm around her. Cherie bent her legs under her and, to be more comfortable, took off her sandals. When she did that, Tom noticed her sandals' metal heel and toe taps and said, "Your taps look nice on those sandals. Do you put taps on all your shoes?"

"Well," answered Cherie, I'm starting to do that. But until my mom finally decided it was o.k., I only put them on one pair."

Tom took out his cigarettes and asked her if she wanted one. Cherie replied, "I'd like to but my mom doesn't want me to smoke, so I'd better not." She looked a little embarrassed about saying that.

Then Tom told her she looked really cute ("I love your blonde pony tail!") and that he'd like to take her out some time. Before she thought about what she was saying, she replied, "My parents said I can't date until I'm a junior so I guess I'll have to say no to that too." Then as soon as the words left her mouth, she felt a strong pain of regret. She thought to herself, "Oh my God, what must he be thinking about me. I'm such a dork!"

Meanwhile Mike wasn't having any more luck with Kelly. She, too, declined the offers of this dark, handsome, 18-year-old hunk of a guy, and when he became a little aggressive, leaning over to touch her chest, she drew back instinctively. Like Cherie, she couldn't help herself even though she really did want him to touch her.

Cherie then looked at her watch. "Ohmygod! It's 11 o'clock! Kelly! It's a school night! We better get back! My dad is going to kill me and your mom is going to kill you too!" And then, looking around at Brittney and Kevin making out and hearing Susan from the next room moan in obvious sexual pleasure, she realized how out-of-place she felt. Kelly and Cherie both quietly and slowly stood up.

"Well, guys, it's been really nice. But we've got to go," said Kelly. Brittney and the boys pleaded with them to stay, but it didn't do any good. Cherie called out a goodbye to Susan in the next room, and they both thanked Kevin for inviting them over and Kelly thanked Tom "for showing us how to smoke pot." Their respective boys then walked them out the front door. On the porch, Tom put his arm around Cherie's waist and pulled her towards him. He planted a gentle kiss on her lips, and suddenly a warmth came over Cherie that made her regret her decision to leave. Mike and Kelly embraced and in kissing their tongues intertwined and Kelly began to sweat. She put her hand on Mike's cheek and said, "Another time, o.k.?" He nodded, and the two girls walked down the sidewalk and into the street, Cherie walking barefoot with her sandals in her hand, the silence broken only by the tippety-tapping of Kelly's metal-tipped heels on the blacktop, as the boys watched them disappear down the street.

The next day in school, Cherie and Kelly ran over to Brittney to ask her about what the boys said about them after they left. Brittney told them the boys said that they were really nice and really cute but that they'd wished the girls would have been more adventurous. Brittney reminded Cherie about how she'd advised her before to ignore her parents' objections to having taps put on her shoes. ("And see what happened; now your mom has taps on her shoes too!"). She told them, with not a little bit of annoyance, "Look, you guys had a chance last night to have a really good time with some awesome boys. You are missing out on the best time of your life! You girls have got to change your ways!" She advised them to get horseshoe taps on their boots and to learn to smoke and she advised Kelly to color her hair blonde and leave some dark roots showing. ("When you show them that you bleach your hair, they know that you're available for fun and games!") She added, "Then next weekend you'll be ready to come out with me and Susan when we go bar hopping. You'll meet all kinds of boys that way, and not just high school boys either!"

All that day, between every class period, Cherie and Kelly got together to talk. They both admired Brittney so much that they found themselves really torn. On the one hand, their parents—particularly Cherie's—had brought them up to accept strict rules about behavior and even to accept their beliefs about what was right to do. On the other hand, they truly felt left out of the fun that they saw others having around them. What was worse is that the girl they most admired, and who had been so right in the past, was urging them to "change your ways."

Monday night was choir practice, and both girls dutifully attended, although they both decided to put on more makeup than usual (eye-liner and mascara along with bright red lipstick), and they wore their shortest skirt and put on flats that had the noisiest taps of any shoes they had. They quickly became the center of attention, all the boys and girls wanting to talk with them and be seen with them. While Cherie and Kelly enjoyed the attention, the other kids seemed a little immature to them. They thought back to the night before and how much older everyone was. Kelly commented to Cherie, "And did you notice? All of them--Tom and Mike and Brittney and Susan, too—they all had horseshoe taps on their shoes." They longed to be among Brittney and her friends again.

So the next day, Cherie and Kelly sought Brittney out at lunch, where she was busy putting into the database the newest taps that kids had put on their shoes. Kelly spoke first, "Brittney, we thought about it and we think you're right. We want to change, just like you said."

Brittney looked up from her computer. "That's fucking cool! How can I help?"

"Well," started Cherie slowly, with some obvious discomfort. "Umm, you know I really don't know how to smoke, you know, inhaling deeply like you do. When I tried it, I just started coughing."

Kelly added, "I tried to help her, but I don't know enough myself how to. Plus, I need to know about getting my hair streaked blonde. I've never gone to a hairdresser before. My mom's always cut my hair. Would you go with me the first time?" she asked.

"Sure thing. I will go with you there tomorrow afternoon if you want. It's my one day off work. So what else are you girls going to do to change? How about those horseshoe taps I suggested?"

Kelly replied, "Yeah, we've already picked out a new pair of boots we want to get so we can put horseshoe taps on them. We saw them on Ms Wilms one time, and her horseshoe taps looked great on them. They're like almost knee-length, black patent, with big chunky heels. Do you know where she got them?"

Brittney laughed. "You two are going to be a project, aren't you!" Then, to show she was just kidding, she added, "Come on, let's go see Susan and ask her. I think I know where she is."

As the three of them walked through the building to the teacher's lounge, Brittney asked the girls, "So have you thought how you are going to handle your parents on this stuff?"

Cherie laughed, "We're going to run away from home! No, really, we're going to first get Kelly's dad on our side, and then he's going to win over her mom, and then we're going to get her parents to speak to mine. At least that's how we hope it's going to work."

When they got to the teacher's lounge, Brittney said, "Wait out here. I'll go get her," and she marched into the lounge, her loud taps stopping most of the conversation inside the smoky room. Since Brittney was the official school tap-checker, and even teachers now had to get their shoes' taps checked, Brittney had the run of the school, even the teachers' lounge. Brittney spotted Susan Wilms over on the other side of the room and when Susan looked up, Brittney motioned to her to come outside. Susan put out her cigarette and clicked her way past the other teachers to the open door.

"Hey, Cherie! Hey, Kelly," Susan greeted them as Brittney held the door open for her as she exited the room. Brittney explained what the girls wanted to know. "Oh, those boots? I got them at the Nine West shop at the mall. They weren't too expensive, like about $69."

"We want to get some like that so we can put horseshoe taps on them," said Cherie.

"Oh, I should have known!" said Susan. "Brittney's goin' to have every girl at school in horseshoe taps pretty soon! It used to be that she and I were about the only ones with them! Well, glad I could help!" She started to turn to walk back in.

"Oh, and one other thing, Ms Wilms," said Kelly. "Next weekend, when you and Brittney go bar hopping, would you take us along?"

Susan gulped. She looked at these sweet 15- and 16-year old girls, in their pony tails and sandals, just a hint of makeup on, and with such a squeaky-clean look on their face. She didn't know how to answer. "Well, Kelly, you have to be 18 to get in to a bar. Do you think you can pass for 18?"

Kelly replied, "Yeah, I know today we couldn't. But by the weekend, I'll bet we can. Brittney's gonna help us. You can check us out on Saturday, and if you say we don't look old enough, we can deal with that. But I'm sure we can do it. At least we want to try!"

"O.K., Kelly, you have a deal."

The rest of that week, Brittney was like a mother hen to the girls. On Wednesday, she taught both of them how to smoke, and smoke seductively in a way that turned men on. Then, she went with them to the mall to buy their boots and then immediately back downtown to Sam's where she got him to put double-horseshoes on the heels of both girls' boots ("with the back nails only going through the bottom taps, like you did for me"). On Thursday, she told her store manager that she'd be late for work that day, and she and Cherie accompanied Kelly to the hair salon and waited with her while her auburn hair was heavily streaked with broad swatches of bright pale blonde. Cherie thought it unfair that her own hair was so naturally blonde; she thought she should at least dye it green or purple, or even jet black, but she decided that was for another day. On the way out of the salon, Kelly, now swathed in a blondeness she'd never dreamed of having, and she and her two friends lit up cigarettes and celebrated by parading down the middle of the downtown street, kicking up their well-tapped heels, and making drivers honk at them until they got out of the way.

Kelly had passed her driver's test on her 16th birthday, and with the loan of her parents' SUV, they had had the run of the town for the past two afternoons. Brittney appreciated the ride back to the mall where she checked in for work about three hours late.

"I TOLD you I'd be late, you asshole," she said under her breath after her boss had yelled at her for her late arrival. She stomped her heavily metal-plated boots down on the terrazzo floor, until her boss gave up and turned away in disgust.

True to their plan, Cherie had arranged to stay at Kelly's house Thursday night, and the surprise arrival of Kelly with her streaked blonde hair was deftly managed by the girls, through appeals to Kelly's father (who they knew was partial to blondes). The girls of course hid their cigarettes, and the double-horseshoe tapped boots were similarly hidden away in Kelly's room for their planned use on the weekend.

The girls decided they'd do a test run of their new persona on Friday evening. They had an extra choir practice that night, so they decided they'd show up in their newly-tapped boots which they changed into in Kelly's SUV. A couple blocks before arriving at the church, Cherie took out her cigarettes, handed one to Kelly, and they lit them just as they pulled into the lot.

If they'd been the center of attention on Monday night, tonight they were ten times that. All the girls wanted to know about Kelly's new hairdo and they took turns touching the curls and examining the swatches of blonde. Boys and girls both were interested in the girls' new black shiny boots, and several of them ran their fingers over the double-horseshoe plates on the bottoms. And, of course, their smoking caused a sensation! To be smoking, especially in front of the church, seemed like the girls must be breaking the most serious rule of church etiquette.

"Gee Kelly, I didn't know you smoked," said Felicity. "I don't think my parents would let me. Is that because you're 16 now and you can drive?"

"Well, Felicity, they're not really related. I just decided I wanted to smoke, that's all. You should try it. These Marlboro Lights taste great!"

"Cherie, does your mom know that you smoke and wear horseshoe taps on your boots?" asked Will, who happened to be Cherie's cousin.

"Umm, I don't really know, Will," responded Cherie as she coolly took a deep inhale and let out a plume of smoke over his shoulder. "But I know one thing," she added in a threatening voice. "You better not be the one to tell her, or I'll make you wish you hadn't!"

After choir practice, it being a Friday night, Cherie and Kelly invited three of their girlfriends to drive with them out to the Lakeside Diner for a hamburger and coke. Of course, they called both sets of parents and got their permission, telling them (as their friend Emily had suggested) that one of the girls' dads was going to meet them at the Diner. Emily, although only 14, was one of the few in the church-going group who wore taps on her shoes. She even whispered to Kelly that "I've smoked cigarettes before."

Kelly parked her parents' SUV at the farthest edge of the diner's parking lot, and the girls sauntered across the lot, making as much noise as they could with the taps on their shoes. While they waited outside for a table to be ready, Kelly offered everyone a cigarette from her pack. Emily and Cherie accepted the offer, but Marla and Nikky, who at 13 were a little younger than the others, seemed reluctant to do so, so the others figured that most likely they'd never smoked before. Meanwhile a carload of teen boys came squealing into the parking lot in a low-rider sedan. The girls watched as three boys, who looked to be a little older than the girls, about 16 or 17 or so, got out of their car. The boys walked towards the restaurant, swaggering along dragging and scraping on the cement what were clearly large steel taps on their Engineer boots. The boys came past them as they went in to put their name on the waiting list for a table, and they immediately noticed that three of the girls were smoking. When the boys came back outside, each boy walked up to one of the three older girls.

The boys asked them what school they went to and did they know so-and-so, and the girls did the same. (The boys were all from a high school in the next town over.) As Kelly was standing there talking with one of the boys, a senior named Al, she raised one of her boots behind her and absent-mindedly stomped it down on the floor several times in a row. Al noticed the sound immediately.

"You've got metal taps on those boots?" he asked.

"Yeah," she said. "I do."

"Are they the half-moon kind like girls usually wear?"

"No, actually, they're horseshoes—double horseshoes as a matter of fact!" Kelly said proudly.

"No shit!" said Al. "Le'me see."

Kelly turned and leaned against the wall, lifted one of her legs so Al could see the bottoms of her boots. Shiny thick steel almost filling the space of the boot's heel stared at him in the face.

"That's awesome," he said coolly. "I've got double-horseshoes on some boots at home," he lied. He took out a cigarette pack from his shirt pocket. "Anyone want a smoke," he asked looking around at the girls. He saw that Emily, Kelly, and Cherie were already smoking, but that Marla and Nikky, who were clearly hanging around with the other three, were not. He offered the pack to them.

"They don't smoke," said Cherie, breaking away from her conversation with one of the other boys.

"Yes we do," shouted Marla. "We just didn't want one before." So both girls took a cigarette and accepted the light that Al offered them. Somehow, they managed to keep the cigarette lit and take in some smoke without coughing.

Al turned to the younger girls. "I 'spoze all of you girls have horseshoe taps on too, like…what's your name? ['Kelly']…oh yeah, like Kelly?" he inquired.

"I do," called out Cherie, eager to show them she was cool, too, and she proudly showed the boys the steel under her boot heel.

Emily spoke up too. "I've only got number 3's on these flats, as she bent her leg backwards so her heel faced up for Al to see. "But I've got #5's on my ropers at home," she added.

"What about you girls?" he asked Marla and Nikky, who at that moment were trying to be as inconspicuous as possible, given that they weren't sure they could pull off smoking the cigarette in their hand.

"Umm, no not yet," said Nikky. "But if my mom lets me, I'm going to put them on my next new pair of shoes." Then she realized that wasn't the right way to impress the boy who asked her.

"Hey," said Al's friend Jack. "We've got some booze in the car. What do you say we jump this shit here and go out to the car and have some?"

The girls looked at one another, alcohol being a definite no-no in all of their families. Cherie was the first to answer, thinking of how she and Kelly were using this as their trial run. "Hey, yeah, that's cool. Let's get some of that stuff! I wanna get drunk!" Cherie threw her cigarette down on the ground and stomped on it with her boots. Then she and Kelly each grabbed one of the boys by the hand and pulled them along out to the parking lot, and everyone else followed.

The boys realized that if they wanted to drink in Jack's car, there wouldn't be room for all of them. Kelly pointed out her car at the edge of the parking lot next to the woods. They split up, and Jack and Cherie and Norm and Emily drove across the parking lot while Al and Kelly and the two younger girls walked across the lot. As they chatted, Al and Kelly each tried to outdo the other with the scraping sounds of their horseshoe taps on the cement.

Trying to make up for her earlier gaff, Nikki called out, "Kelly, you have really cool horseshoe taps on those boots. I'm going to have to get me some like yours. I don't really care what my parents say!" It made her feel better to say that.

While the three girls climbed into Kelly's car—Nikky and Marla up front—Al retrieved a six-pack from Jack's car. The three boys popped the tops on enough cans for everyone in the two cars. Al called for Marla to turn on the car radio, and Cherie did the same in the other car. The three boys and Cherie and Kelly each lit another cigarette, and soon the windows came open and the smoke and music and sounds of talk and laughter wafted into the outside air.

In Jack's car, Cherie and Jack started kissing and although Norm and Emily were too busy with their own romantic explorations to be paying attention to what was going on in the front seat, Jack suggested to Cherie that they'd get more privacy if they walked into the woods. Cherie said that she'd like to do that, and as she left the car she called out to Kelly, "Honk if we're not back when you need to go home."

"This is nice," said Jack, as they made their way beyond the lights of the restaurant and parking lot. "Yeah," agreed Cherie, giving him a wet kiss on his lips. "But you know, I can't see where I am!"

"You're in my arms, sweetie," Jack replied. He felt under her blouse, and she let out a quiet moan. Jack bent his head down and put his face against her chest. "Ohhhh," cried Cherie softly, "that so nice." She thought to herself, "Now I know what I've been missing by listening to my stupid parents. Brittney is so right! Life is too short to hold back."

All of a sudden she found herself confused, knowing she was facing a critical decision—not so much that her virginity was at stake since there was no place to lie down, or even sit down, in the branch-cluttered darkness under the trees. But she realized that this was what all of these changes she'd been working on were all about. If she wanted guys like Jack, and like Tom last Sunday, to like her this was what she was going to have to do—to break the bonds that tied her to her parents' values and their version of acceptable behavior. O.K., she said to herself, I'm ready. I want to be like Brittney. I want to be a bad girl!

Then—of all the worst times—"BEEP! BEEP!" went the horn from Kelly's car. "CHER-REE!" Kelly called out. We gotta go!"

"Just a second!" Cherie yelled back. But like a popped balloon, the spell had been broken, and they couldn't bring it back.

"I'm so sorry, Jack!" she pleaded, almost starting to cry. "Kelly wouldn't have done that if she'd known. Don't be sore at her!" She held Jack's hand, and as she stood up, she brought her lips up to his and opened her mouth letting her tongue slide into his. They kissed passionately for another minute, and then they released, straightened their clothing, and started to walk back to the cars. They were feeling bad, but good at the same time. "Too bad we can't hear our horseshoe taps on the ground!" Cherie said, hoping that Jack would feel that bond between them. "Yeah," he agreed. "Too bad."


	19. When European and American Taps Meet

Television news reporting seems like a glamorous career, which is one reason, of course, why Brittney had asked news reporter Kelly Clark about the possibility of interning at the station during the summer. And Kelly could have told her that it does indeed have its glamorous moments. One thing that made it that way for this gorgeous blonde ex-cheerleader local reporter was the opportunity to meet and socialize with all sorts of dignitaries who came through the town, whether it was the U.S. Congressman who came to discuss election campaign strategies with Forest Glen's mayor, or the European automobile magnate who was doing business with the president of the major tire manufacturing company located in town.

It was, in fact, the visit of Roger Werner, Chief Executive Officer of Bavarian Motor Works, the German automobile giant, who provided Ms Clark with a week of excitement she would long remember. On his first evening in town, Mr. Werner happened to catch the local news on T.V. in his hotel room and saw Ms Clark reporting on the opening of the new Rollerblading Park at the edge of the Town Mall. The next day, during his meetings with Howard Ryder, president of the Glen Tire Manufacturing Plant, he made a flattering comment about the "blonde bombshell of a news reporter" who he'd seen on T.V.

As it happened, Mr. Ryder was a good friend of Kelly Clark's, his company having sponsored her as Forest Glen's candidate for Miss Teen USA, some years ago. (She did respectfully well in the competition, coming in 4th in the State.) He put in a call to her at the T.V. station.

"Kelly, dear!" Mr. Ryder intoned with gusto. "I wonder if you could do me a favor. I've got a guest here from out of town, from Germany actually, who's going to be meeting with me for the next week or so, and he doesn't know anyone else here outside the company. I wonder if you'd be available tonight to go out with him for a drink, or maybe even dinner. Here, let me put him on the line. Kelly Clark meet Roger Werner."

Within two minutes of Roger's getting on the phone, Kelly knew this was no ordinary "guest." She was incredibly taken with his erudite manner and the sound of his German-accented English. She suggested that she was free for dinner after work, and she'd take him to the best place in town and even offered to make it a dutch treat. They agreed to meet at Sauvingion's at 8 pm. "I hate to make it that late but my newscast doesn't end until 6:30." That evening she read her script so fast the producer gestured wildly with his hands to try to slow her down, and even then her co-anchor had a minute to kill at the end of the program. As soon as the camera light went off, Kelly jumped out of her chair and ran back to get her things and out to her car.

She decided to wear her lowest-cut dress, the maroon and white one with ultra-thin shoulder straps, and she put on some black open-toed slingback 4-inch steel-tipped heels and black stockings. She wore her blonde hair down and combed it so it hung down over her left eye and down to her shoulders.

Howard had told her that Roger was good looking, but Kelly was still overwhelmed. He was tall, well over 6 feet, trim, had a strong face, deep-set eyes, and dark brown hair tinged with grey on the side. He was wearing a business suit, but still looked casual and comfortable. Kelly noticed his shoes immediately–well-polished black oxfords–and she realized that she'd noticed the shoes because they had made a clicking sound when he walked towards her. It was still rare for men to have taps on their shoes at that time in Forest Glen, so she wondered if things were different in Germany.

Roger turned out to be a very interesting man—with many talents besides running a huge company. And mixed with Kelly's professional interviewing skills, the dinner conversation was as fulfilling as the chateaubriand and the filet of sole that they each respectively consumed from their dinner plate. A bottle of the finest French wine (it had been hard to select the right wine for their quite differing entrée selections) and an apparatif to end the meal, and they were ready for a good long walk along the paved river walk that snaked behind the restaurant over to the downtown shopping area.

As these two attractive, finely dressed individuals walked out of the restaurant, the sharp clip-clip sounds of their footwear attracted extra attention from the patrons and staff. That led Kelly to comment as they reached the privacy of the paved path, "Did you notice people looking at us when we left the restaurant? I think part of it was the noise our shoes were making. We've got a little fashion statement going on in this town related to steel taps on the heels of people's shoes. I put steel tips on these sandals' heels. It sounded like your heels also have steel taps."

"As a matter of fact, they do." Roger stopped and raised his left foot, holding on to its ankle with his right hand. "These are called 'quarter-tips,' I suppose because they run about a quarter of the way around the back and side edges. But I didn't have them put on the shoes; that's just the way they were sold at the store in London, where I bought them. I'm pretty sure the shoes were made that way—see how the steel tip is level with the top layer of leather." Then Roger added, "They even came with large rims around the toe area of the sole," and he pointed the 2-inch long toe plates out to Kelly as well.

"Is it common in Europe for men to have steel taps on their shoes?" asked Kelly.

"Well, not as common as it used to be. For many decades, military men wore horseshoe shaped steel plates on their heels, called heel irons, and rims around the front of the soles. You still see heel irons sometimes on parade boots that soldiers and guards wear—and also on policemen's boots. But also, especially in big cities like London and Berlin, businessmen have shoes like mine with steel quarter-tips. Do you like the sound they make?"

Kelly had a long answer to that one. "You bet I do! Very authoritative! I actually love hearing the taps sound on my own shoes. I started putting metal taps on my shoes a month or two ago when I did a T.V. news story about the high school kids who went on strike when the school people told them they couldn't have taps on their shoes. At first I just put some metal taps on a pair of pairs of flats to see what it felt like listening to my walk. But I liked them so much, I took a dozen pair of my shoes, into the shoe repair shop and had taps put on them—little steel tips on stilettos like these, but larger half-moon taps on loafers, sandals, and boots." Then she added, with somewhat of an embarrassed expression, "I even put some tap dance taps on shoes I go dancing in and some horseshoe taps on some platform boots I often wear when I go out for drinks!"

Roger couldn't resist the suggestion: "We should go out for drinks once before I leave town. I'd like to see you in those horseshoe-tapped platform boots!"

They'd been walking along the river walk for about 10 minutes and had reached its end, where the river crosses Main St. Rather than turning back, they turned left and walked along the near-deserted downtown street. The taps on Kelly's slingback sandals made a particularly noisy racket as they walked along the uneven pavement of the sidewalk downtown.

"It's not that uncommon in Britain to hear women with metal tips like you've got on your high heels. In fact," Roger thought for a minute, "I'd guess 10% of British professional women have shoes with steel stiletto tips." He paused for a moment, then added, "Not so much in Germany, though. If you notice metal taps on a German woman's shoes, it's usually on the boots of a punk rocker chick!"

"Well, I'm not into punk, but I do like the sound that metal taps make!" said Kelly. "They sound great on your shoes, too." Then she stopped, turned towards Roger, and smiled. "Guess what?" she continued. "We're right in front of the shoe repair place where everyone goes to get taps on their shoes and boots. Look inside the window of Sam's shop. You can see shoes lined up waiting to be picked up by their owners. I see quite a few that look like they have metal taps on the heels. Mostly kids' shoes, but also women's and even men's. Yes, how about that! Even the men in this town are starting to put taps on their shoes! Look, there's the big board that Sam keeps a sample of each size of tap he has. See all the different sizes of horseshoe taps. You know, looking at those horseshoe taps, I think they would be great on my red cowgirl boots. Those boots have two-inch half-moon taps on them now, but they'd look much better with horseshoes!"

Roger reacted to Kelly's mention of cowgirl boots. "Wow! I'd love to see you in those red cowgirl boots some time. In fact, is there a place around here to go horseback riding? It's one of my favorite things to do."

"As a matter of fact, there is a great riding place out on Highway 28, at the Merced Ranch. I could go with you there some time this week, if you'd like," she suggested, hoping he'd agree to a second date with her.

Roger took the bait—actually he was just waiting for an opportunity to ask to see Kelly again. So they agreed to go on Friday morning, since most of his work would be done by then, and she didn't have to be at the station until 2 p.m.

The next morning, in preparation for her Friday morning horseback riding date, Kelly gathered up her red cowgirl boots and, on the way to work, she took them in to Sam's. Sam greeted her at the door of his shop.

"Hello, Kelly, dear. What brings you in today? Oh, I see you brought your red Western boots with you. Are you going to a rodeo today?" He laughed.

"Actually, I'm going to wear them horseback riding Friday with a German gentleman! I brought them in because I'd like to have horseshoe taps put on the heels—I think cowgirl boots ought to make horseshoe imprints in the dirt, don't you?!!"

"Yes, of course they should, dear," said Sam. "But to be honest, honey, if you want to impress your German friend, you really should wear riding boots to go horseback riding. These nice cowboy boots ought to be worn dancing, not riding! Don't you have any riding boots?"

"Well, no actually, I don't. I don't really ride all that much."

"O.K., well I'll fix these up with horseshoes, just in case you don't have a chance to get riding boots before Friday. You want to wait for them or pick them up later?"

"I guess I'll pick them up tomorrow morning."

So Kelly left her red cowgirl boots at Sam's and went on in to the T.V. station, thinking all afternoon about riding boots. That night, instead of going straight home, she drove out to the mall, to the Western Outfitters shop where she'd remembered seeing riding boots for sale. She asked about the one's she'd seen, tall tight black leather boots with broad flat hard rubber heels and leather soles. She learned that they had one more pair left in her size, 8B. She was really excited until she saw the price on them, $280. But she convinced herself that they were the kind of boots she could wear lots of other places besides riding—out on dates and even maybe in to work, with a long skirt. So after trying them on and being satisfied that they fit her well enough, she plunked down her credit card.

The next morning, she brought her new riding boots in to show Sam.

"Kelly, dear, those are a fantastic pair of boots…almost too nice to go horseback riding in. I was thinking more of some dirty brown work boots, but, well, I'm sure these will be fine for your purposes" (and he gave her a sly wink). He started to give them back to her and then she stopped him.

"Uh-uh, Sam," said Kelly. "They need to have taps on them. And because I spent so much money on them, I want them to have the biggest, baddest plates you can put on them." She laughed, but she was deadly serious.

Sam thought for a moment and fished out some taps from the boxes he kept behind the counter. "O.K., sweetie, how is this?" He showed her a pair of large steel horseshoe plates for the heels, some #8 toe taps that fit around the toes just perfectly, and a pair of #3 taps for the sides of the soles.

"That looks just awesome—just like I've got on my platform boots!" said Kelly. "Today I'm not in a hurry so I'll just wait for them."

"You know," called out Sam, as he was working on Kelly's shoes. "I think I met your German friend yesterday! This tall, debonair guy with some kind of European accent came in to get some plates put on some new shoes he'd just bought."

"Was he, like, over 6 feet tall with dark brown hair streaked with grey at the temples?"

"Yeah, that describes him pretty well. Well, anyway, I could tell he was wearing metal plates already on the shoes he was wearing…"

"That must be him," Kelly interrupted. "He wore what he called 'quarter-tips' on the shoes he wore Monday night when we went to dinner. What kind of plates did he want?"

"He showed me those quarter-tips and asked if I could do that on his new shoes. But those plates are built into the heel, so instead I put on #8s. He seemed quite satisfied with them. He also asked for 'large rims,' as he called them, on the toes, so I put on #8's on the toes too, just like I'm putting on yours now. But the shoes he got the plates for were office shoes; I don't think he'll be wearing those for riding."

"Interesting," said Kelly, mostly to herself. "Maybe I ought to see if he wants to go out drinking tonight!"

"What's that?" asked Sam. "I couldn't hear you."

"Nothing," said Kelly. "Just thinking out loud."

When Kelly got to work, she phoned her friend Howard at the tire factory and asked if Roger was around. Before Howard buzzed Roger to tell him Kelly was on the phone, he whispered to her, "He's been in a fantastic mood this week. I think he's going to make a long-term commitment to have us be his tire supplier. Do I have you to thank for this?"

"Well, I don't know. We've only had one date!" Still, she was pleased he seemed to be liking her as much as she enjoyed being with him.

"Kelly! Nice to hear from you!" said Roger into the phone. "It seems so long since we had dinner, and its been only two days. Are we still on for Friday morning? …. Good, but you know, I'd like to see you before then. Would you like to go out for drinks after work tonight?"

"Roger, I had the exact same idea!" Kelly exclaimed. "And a little birdy told me that you got a new pair of oxfords this week. I hope you'll wear them tonight! I want to hear…er I mean see them!"

"News travels fast in this town," Roger replied.

They agreed to meet at the bar at the hotel where Roger was staying. Kelly wanted to show Roger her red cowgirl boots that she'd just had horseshoe taps put on so she dressed the part with a matching bright red shirt, black jeans, and a black cowboy hat. She also filled an overnight bag with a change of clothes so she could change into something more appropriate to the business wear that Roger was no doubt going to have on.

When Kelly walked in to the darkened hotel bar, several patrons turned to see who was coming in making such distinct clip-clop sounds with her boots. Despite Kelly's getup, several of the men recognized her as the T.V. news reporter from KFGC. A number of them whistled, and that drew the attention of Roger who was sitting at the other end of the bar. He'd been talking with the bartender and hadn't noticed Kelly arrive. As soon as he realized the sexy-looking cowgirl walking towards him was Kelly, he got up and walked across the room to greet her. The brand new steel plates on his shoes made almost as much noise as Kelly's had made coming in. When the bar patrons noticed him approaching the young woman, they realized it was more than coincidental that the two of them both had steel-plated footwear.

"Well, hello, cowgirl!" said Roger, as they hugged upon reaching one another.

"I hope this outfit didn't freak you out," said Kelly. "I wore my red cowgirl boots to show you because I decided they wouldn't be right for our horseback ride on Friday, and I wanted you to see them. See, now they have horseshoe taps on the heels!" Kelly lifted her leg back of her so Roger could see the new full-sized metal heel taps. "I have a change of clothes in the car if you'd feel better if I was in a more conservative outfit!"

"No, that's fine. I like what you're wearing, very much. But if would you take your hat off, then I could see more of your luscious blonde hair and your beautiful face!" Kelly smiled coyly and removed her hat. Roger continued, "Let's go over to that booth over in the corner." Roger pointed out their destination, and then he remembered about the drink that he'd left at the bar. "Let me get my drink and I'll meet you over there."

Kelly watched as Roger went over to the bar to get his drink. She noticed both by sound and by sight the large taps under the heels of his dress oxfords, smaller than the horseshoes she had on the heels of her cowgirl boots, but still sounding impressive anyway.

When they met at the table, Kelly told him, "I already knew about your metal heel taps."

"Yes, I expected that was so because of the comment you made earlier on the phone. Did the shoe repair man tell you?"

"As a matter of fact, he did," replied Kelly. "When I went in to Sam's to get these horseshoe taps on my boots, he mentioned that a European gentleman had come in and asked for heel plates. I figured it must have been you." She didn't tell him about the riding boots and all the steel she'd had put on those because she wanted to surprise him on Friday morning.

"Yes, the plates he put on these shoes are bigger than the quarter-tips on my other ones. But actually they're quite nice! They make a nice sound."

Kelly ordered a gin and tonic, and she and Roger chatted for more than an hour. She learned he'd been divorced a year ago from his wife, a physician, and that he didn't have any children. He learned she'd been a high school cheerleader and tennis player and a college drama major and that she'd come back to her home town to be near her mom, who'd been seriously ill and had, in fact, died last summer. In his gut, Roger already wanted to take her back to Germany with him, but as a successful businessman, he knew it was important not to make rush judgments. It was also important to make sure they were compatible in bed!

Similar thoughts were running through Kelly's head. As comfortable as it was to be in her hometown, now that she didn't have any real reason to stay here except for her TV job, she found herself hoping that this new friendship would lead someplace—and quickly, since Roger would be gone by Monday morning.

After a couple of drinks, and a sandwich, they decided to go for a walk. Roger put his arm around Kelly, and that made her feel all tingly inside. Their shoes made pleasant, harmonic sounds on the sidewalk. At one point, Roger said, "Kelly, I truly feel so lucky to have met you on this trip. Imagine, here I am in the United States of America, walking down the street with a gorgeous young woman, a television star, who's wearing a black western hat and red cowboy boots with large steel horseshoe plates clip-clopping as we walk along—it's simply magical!"

Kelly stopped, turned towards Roger, stood up on her tiptoes, put her arms around him, and pulled him down so she could give him a long, wet, open-mouthed kiss. They embraced for a full minute. Then, Roger asked her if she'd like to go up to his room to watch some T.V. Kelly smiled and nodded yes, and then she suggested that they first go to her car so she could get the bag with her change of clothes (which in fact also had a nightgown and toiletries as well).

On their way into the hotel, at the front desk they picked up a DVD to watch in the room. Over Kelly's mild protestations, Roger selected the movie _To Die For,_ with Nicole Kidman. "I want to see what a real local TV newswoman is like!" he told her in jest. Kelly complained that people have told her to her face that she reminded them of Nicole Kidman, both in the way she looks ("pouting one moment and smiling the next") and in the way she carried herself ("walking fast and making lots of noise doing so"). She added, "It's been hard to avoid cracks about being an evil, scheming woman. Please know that I don't go around luring teenagers into murdering men!" Roger laughed.

As Roger was setting up the T.V. and the DVD player and turning down the lights, Kelly took off her red cowgirl boots and put them on the floor. Roger noticed her doing so.

"Let me see your boots," Roger asked, as he slipped off his own shoes. He picked up Kelly's boots and examined this flashy red pair of strictly feminine cowboy boots that had silver toe and heel decorations above the toe and the heel and large metal taps underneath. Meanwhile, Kelly picked up his shoes to look at them as well.

"I like those huge toe taps on your shoes," Kelly said. "They're number 8's, just like you have on the heels. I always try to have larger heel taps than toe taps, but the only larger taps you could have on these heels would be horseshoes!" She thought for a moment. "You know, Roger, horseshoe plates would look fantastic on these oxfords. Really powerful!"

Roger demurred. "In Europe, men don't put heel irons on dress shoes, except if you're in the guard or something. But I agree that the sound they make is very powerful."

"I've got an idea," said Kelly. "Another way to get that extra clop sound that horseshoes make when you land on the front part of your shoe is to put taps on the sides of the soles." She pointed to the instep and on the opposite side of the sole. "Have you ever seen them on the sides?"

"No, I don't think so," replied Roger. "I've seen lots of military boots with metal hobnails on the soles, but people don't wear hobnails on oxfords except in the military."

Kelly continued. "I've got side taps on my platform boots. As a matter of fact, I've got those boots in my bag. Let me show you." So Kelly brought out her black chunky-heeled platform ankle boots with wide 2-inch heels that had horseshoe taps on the heels and side and toe taps on the platform sole. "See. This is how they look. You need thick soles for side taps, but you've got thick enough soles on your new shoes so side taps would work pretty well. And the side taps would make up for the fact that you don't have horseshoe plates on the heels."

Roger answered, "Kelly, darling, if you think I should put side taps on these shoes, then I will go right out and get that done tomorrow morning. I want to do right by you in every way." He kissed her several times, and each time Kelly kissed him back even harder. They caressed each other for awhile, and then each slowly pulled back. Roger broke the short silence: "Kelly, my love, let us turn on the video and see what kind of a newswoman you are really like and what I'm getting myself into!"

The lovemaking that occurred that night was exquisite—tender, passionate, and prolonged. It was the best that each of them had experienced in many years. In the morning, they felt even better about one another, and themselves, and they both found it almost impossible to get out of bed. But job responsibilities called, and since Kelly had some interviews to do that evening they acknowledged that they wouldn't get to spend time together until their Friday morning riding date.

Friday morning finally arrived. It was already warm outside. Kelly put on some tight black pants and a loose-fitting white blouse. She spent a long time in front of the mirror, not quitting until she felt she looked just right. Then, after first admiring the four pair of steel plates attached to the bottoms of her new tall black riding boots, she pulled them up onto her feet, making sure her pants were carefully tucked inside the boots. Finally, she grabbed her black cowboy hat, put it on, and adjusted it so a thick wave of bright blonde hair came out from under the hat, in front of her left eye and along her cheek. When she felt completely ready, she called Roger and asked him to come by to pick her up.

Meanwhile, Roger gathered up what clothes he had brought along that he might go riding in—a casual light blue sports shirt and some blue jeans. But on his feet, he had a surprise for Kelly. After their first get together on Monday, he'd called his secretary back in Germany and asked her to Fed-Ex overnight his brown leather riding boots to him. These riding boots had the kind of built-in horseshoe-shaped heel irons he'd told Kelly about—a half-inch thick edging of steel all around the back and side of the heels. The day before, he'd taken them to Sam's shoe repair and had had large #8 plates put on the front of the sole and substantial #5's put on both sides of the sole. He thought they'd make a great impression on his riding partner.

Kelly heard Roger pull up in front of her house, and she heard him even more clearly walk up the pathway to her door. Sounds like metal taps, she thought. She peeked out her window. He looked just the way she'd hoped he would—strong, clean, and ready to roll. He seemed more a cowboy than a corporate executive, and that suited her fine this morning.

"Roger, those are fantastic looking boots! Did you buy them this week too?" Kelly asked.

"No, actually, I had them shipped from Germany just for this morning's ride," he told her honestly.

"Wow! Can I see the taps on them?" she asked. "Come on in. Let's sit down for awhile before we head out." Roger took the offered seat on Kelly's richly upholstered side-chair. She sat down on it's mate. He lifted his right leg and crossed it over his left knee so Kelly could see the taps.

"Awesome!" she cried, in her best I-used-to-be-a-cheerleader voice. "I like the way the steel is built right into the heel, just like you said they do in Europe. Monster toe taps and big side taps too—hey, you said you didn't know about side taps."

"That's true! Yesterday, after we talked Wednesday evening, I took these boots to Sam's and asked him to put the side and toe taps on them, just for you!"

Kelly smiled. "Hey, this means our shoes are fitted with taps exactly the same way this morning. Look at my brand new riding boots. I got them especially for today!" She crossed her left leg over her right knee and showed Roger an almost identical pattern of metal taps— horseshoes on the heels, two side taps (hers weren't quite as large as Roger's) and huge #8 toe taps. "Well, we really are a couple, aren't we! So what are we waiting for! Let's go riding!" They both rose from their chairs, turned towards one another, and gave each other the first of a hundred kisses they would share that morning.

Out to Roger's car the lovers went, sweetly holding hands, their majestic steel heel and sole plates pounding and scraping on the sidewalk, off to meet their horses.

Forest Glen did not get its name by accident. Surrounding the town on three sides were woods and streams. But to the north, where Roger and Kelly drove this morning, was a series of rolling hills and gentle valleys. It was in this area where Merced Ranch was located and where horses were available to ride, for a hefty fee, of course. Kelly had called earlier in the week and reserved the ranch's two best horses, a Palomino named Diablo for Roger and a chestnut mustang named Sara for Kelly. As they finished saddling the horses, Kelly noticed in the dirt the horseshoe-shaped impressions made by her boots' taps and that made her drawn even more to her horse, Sara. She gave her a gentle kiss and patted her face. Roger's steel heel plates didn't make such a sharp impression in the dirt because his were flush with the heel, but Kelly noticed one print in the dirt and pointed it out to Roger. After preparing their saddles, the two of them mounted their horses, and rode off towards the start of the trail at the edge of the fields by the stable.

It was a wonderful morning, and Kelly and Roger enjoyed a relaxing ride along the hillside and into the neighboring valley. They rode across several small streams and nearby an old quarry. By the quarry, they dismounted and walked across the cement yard where the quarry trucks had pulled up to take on their loads. They enjoyed a little interlude dragging their steel horseshoe taps along the cement and making as much noise as they could. But then Kelly's horse, Sara, got frightened from the scraping sounds the taps made, and they had to stop and settle her down.

On their way back to the ranch, the riders stopped one more time, under the shade of several oak trees. They tied up their horses where the horses could nibble on the wild grass, and the two lovers lay down in the shade and kissed and caressed one another's faces and arms. Kelly brought Roger's head towards her bosom. He rested his face in her lap for awhile. Then Kelly sat up and Roger lay down, and Kelly reached over and touched him softly. Soon they were both asleep.

Kelly was the first to awaken. Roger lay on top with his arms draped around her. She withdrew one of his arms enough to turn over on her back and plant a kiss on his cheek. Then she released herself some more and sat up, looking now at his thighs and the tops of his boots. She remembered his horseshoe taps and wanted to touch them. She crawled forward and grasped his boot in her hands. She caressed the leather along the top of the shoe and then felt the cold steel under the heel in her hands. She smiled. Suddenly she had the idea that her horseshoe taps and his should come together, like they had themselves. She crawled forward until the two of them lay end to end, each on their stomach, boot soles touching. She adjusted her position just enough to let the toes of her boots' heels meet his, metal taps clicking against each other. Then she slid backward just so slightly, so their side taps touched, and she brushed her feet up and down to make the two sets of taps scrape softly against one another. Finally, she moved back slightly again to place the heels of her boots against his boot heels. She moved her left boot up and down against his, the two large steel horseshoe plates scraping past one another, and then she did the same with the tap on the heel of her right boot. What a sweet sound the horseshoe taps made together, she thought. After that, she relaxed and closed her eyes.

A few minutes later, Roger awoke and saw Kelly lying there at his feet facing away from him. He had been totally oblivious to her extra love making, but he was serenely happy. He stood up, and arranged himself, and then gently prodded Kelly to wake up.

"Kelly, dear, it is nearly noon. I think we need to get back."

She awoke again, smiled, remembering her secret touching of their taps, and said softly, "Roger, kiss me." He got down on his knees at her side, his sunlit horseshoe taps shining in her eyes, and began to kiss her, first gently and, as she kissed back, then passionately.

"Roger?"

"Yes, sweety?"

"I want to stay with you. I don't want you to leave."

"Well, darling, we still have this weekend to be together. Let us enjoy the time we have together and plan the next steps to keep our love alive."

That was nice enough for Kelly to hear. She got to her feet and pulled Roger up with her. They retrieved their horses, mounted them, and rode back to the stables.

After a brief separation for their respective Friday afternoon business obligations, Kelly and Roger returned to each other that evening, and spent the next 60 hours together, in each other's arms—and, of course, clickety-clacking together in their tappity shoes all weekend long. By Monday morning, when Roger drove off to the county airport to return to his home in Germany, Kelly knew where her future was going to be, and it was going to be far, far away from Forest Glen, in the arms of a rugged, handsome businessman whose boots and shoes, like her own, were fitted with the steel of their love.


	20. Allison's Night Out With Blake

Way back in September, just before the school year was about to start, high school principal Blake Martin was forced into making a last-minute decision. His secretary (and one-time secret amour) had suddenly quit without so much as a day's notice. (The rumors about their affair had gotten back to her, and she felt it was best to completely disappear.) Mr. Martin quickly rounded up two employees from the county school district office staff who were available to be interviewed. One was an older woman who had a reputation for being smart and experienced but also argumentative; the other was a young woman who'd just finished a 2-year associate-of-arts degree in business and had been assigned to an administrator who didn't really need her after all. Mr. Martin played his hunch and went with the younger woman, Alison Dexter. After all, he thought to himself, running a school is a tough job; it's important to have people around who bring smiles to people's faces, and a pretty young woman is just nice to be around.

Alison liked the idea of working at a high school. She herself had graduated high school only a couple of years ago (at the local rival to Forest Glen), and high school had been so much more fun than community college. She'd made lots of friends there, and the parties had been much more fun than some of the ones she'd been going to recently. Back in the 11th grade, she'd secretly dated (and even gone to bed with) her history teacher, and to this day she remembers that as a great thrill.

It took Alison only a few weeks to get the hang of her job, which was partly office receptionist and partly personal secretary to Principal Martin. She found Mr. Martin easy to work with, and although he was about 20 years her senior, he treated her more as an apprentice than as hired help. But it was with the students whom Alison got along best. She was petite, about 5'3," with a sweet-looking face and medium-length dirty blonde hair and didn't look any older than 17 even though she turned 19 that November. Alison became kind of an older sister to both boys and girls, and often the office would be filled with kids hanging out talking with her between classes or even after the next period had started. Almost every day, Mr. Martin had to come out of his office at least once and shoo the students back to class. That was the one bit of friction between them.

When the Forest Glen girls started putting metal taps on their shoes and boots, it wasn't long before Alison joined them in this fad. Even before the students went on strike over the right to have taps on their shoes, Alison had taken some of her flats in to have metal taps put on them. As with the metal taps on other Forest Glen tapgirls' shoes, the taps on Alison's footwear got progressively larger and louder as the Spring semester wore on. Some days, she even wore to work her Mary Jane t-strap heels that had full-heel aluminum dance taps on them. Partly she did this to show the students that she was one of them. And partly it was that she enjoyed annoying vice-principal Hedley Hawkins, whom she knew hated hearing metal taps on shoes. In fact, she figured that when the vice-principal issued his order prohibiting taps on the students' shoes, it was her own tap-wearing that was partly responsible for putting the idea into his head. But Alison wasn't worried about Mr. Hawkins getting back at her personally. She knew that Mr. Martin had become very attracted to her, and that he'd come to her defense over anything that he tried to do that was unfair.

At any event, with the students winning the right to keep taps on their shoes, and with metal taps now being worn even by a number of the female teachers, Alison's own tap-wearing ceased to be an issue in the school office. In fact, when she followed English teacher Susan Wilms' lead and bleached her dirty-blonde hair a bright platinum shade, she became the center of favorable attention from the male administrators (except for "Hawkeye" Hawkins)—and especially from her own boss, Principal Martin.

On numerous occasions when he and Alison were working alone in his office, Mr. Martin would comment to her about how nice she looked, and more than once or twice he suggested that they should go out for a drink some time. He'd been very polite about it, but his interest in her seemed to get stronger and stronger as the Spring wore on. He'd started making disparaging comments about his wife, mentioning that "she can't hold a candle to you. She'd never even _think_ of dying her hair blonde like you did, and she'll probably be the last woman in Forest Glen to put taps on her shoes." Alison tried to deflect those kinds of comments, because even though she liked Mr. Martin, she didn't think she should get involved with him in that way.

Finally, though, Alison decided she'd accept one of Blake's many appeals to "go out for a drink" after work. It was a Friday, and she'd come to work in a more casual outfit than usual, wearing a navy blue oxford shirt and blue jeans along with a pair of black lace-up ankle boots with small 2-inch kitten heels. Since the heels were fairly small—about an inch across—she'd had the shoe repairman put full-heel aluminum dance taps on them, like on her Mary Jane t-straps. The dark clothing made Alison's platinum hair seem even more striking than usual, and she'd had to fend off numerous catcalls from the male students all day long. So it actually felt good to be going out with a mature man, even if he was married.

Blake suggested that they should each drive their cars out of town to the Old Mill parking lot, and then they could meet up and decide where to go from there. Alison didn't quite understand why, but she decided not to question her boss' logistical plans at this point. When they arrived at the former Mill, Alison got out of her little Toyota Celica and walked over to Blake's Acura, the aluminum taps of her boots scraping against the parking lot blacktop.

"I love it that you have metal taps on your boots," he said as she got into his car.

"Oh, but weren't you against the students wearing taps?" she asked half-kiddingly, knowing this was the vice-principal's doing.

"Well, it doesn't matter about those kids, but women like you are just so much more sexy when you make those clicking sounds when you walk."

"So where do you want to go," Alison asked as she sat down in Blake's car, pleased that he'd called her a 'woman.'

"There's a really nice tavern in Derbyville," Blake answered.

"But that's an hour away!" Alison exclaimed.

Blake replied that he didn't want to run into someone his wife knew "or she'd get the wrong idea." So Alison agreed, and he put the car in gear and they drove off.

The Derbyville Tavern was well known in the county for having a great microbrewery, and Blake and Alison thoroughly enjoyed glasses of several of the beers on tap. This was the first time they'd talked much about each other's lives outside of school, and the conversation relaxed both of them. Alison even lit up a cigarette and that surprised Blake since she'd never smoked around school. "I like to smoke," she said, "especially when I'm having a drink. Luckily, I don't seem to smoke enough to get addicted, though." After awhile, Blake slid around and sat next to her while they talked, drank, and nibbled on some cheese nachos. Alison was finding Blake to be really quite humorous and, in her mildly inebriated state, was basically happy to go along with whatever was happening.

About 6 o'clock, after they'd been at the tavern for an hour or so, Alison started wondering about Blake's obligations to his family that evening. "Isn't your wife expecting you home for dinner?" she asked him.

"Actually," he answered, "Martha and the kids have gone off to her parents' house in Port City for the weekend." He turned towards Alison, smiled, and put his hand gently to her neck and caressed it. "I was thinking you and I could just spend the evening together." She put her hand on his and squeezed it. "Maybe we could," she smiled back. Alison had not been thinking when she left school that she was headed for bed with her boss, but given the way she was feeling at this particular time, it seemed like it might be nice if it turned out that way.

After a quick meal at the restaurant next door, they drove back to Forest Glen and went directly to Blake's house. He'd thought of having them stay at the Inn by the tavern, but decided it would be better to be at home, in case his wife telephoned.

Once inside her boss' house, Alison began to have second thoughts. Although she'd met his wife and two children on several occasions when they came by the high school, seeing all the family pictures and his wife's handiwork and home furnishings, she felt out-of-place. But Blake was very reassuring and quite fun to be around and so she was torn about what to do. As a result, although she didn't stop his advances she also couldn't quite enjoy the love-making, neither downstairs on the sofa nor when they went up to the bedroom.

However, for Blake, making love to Alison was the fulfillment of a year-long dream. When he'd hired her, he already was smitten. But seeing her change during the year—growing into her job, becoming a really sexy looking blonde, and particularly clicking around the school office with those loud taps she now always had on her shoes—he'd become quite obsessed with having her, although he was careful not to let it show.

The next morning, Blake asked Alison to stay with him that evening as well, but she tried to beg off. She didn't want to make him angry—after all, he could easily get her transferred back to the district office, and she was having so much fun working at the high school, she definitely did not want that to happen. He was insistent, though, so she agreed to go out to dinner with him and "we'll talk about the overnight thing later." So he drove her back to the Mill to pick up her car, and they agreed to meet again at 7 p.m. at the Woodhaven, a rustic country restaurant well out-of-town.

Alison returned to her apartment and then got started on her Saturday chores. She did her laundry and some food shopping, and then she remembered she needed some cosmetics so she drove out to the mall to stop at Reed's Drug Store. When she walked into the drugstore, clickety-clicking in her penny loafers, she saw Brittney working at the cash register, and they waved hi to each other.

Brittney was one of Alison's favorite Forest Glen students. Apart from inducing her to put larger taps on her shoes, Alison liked Brittney because she reminded her of Dayna, her best friend from 10th grade. Dayna, like Brittney, was a lot of fun, flirting with guys all the time, and a bit on the wild side. In Dayna's case, she'd ended up getting involved with some hoodlum types and dropped out of high school. These days, unfortunately, she was totally wasted on meth-amphetamines. Alison had made a promise to herself to watch over Brittney to make sure this high school freshman didn't go down that road.

When Alison had bought the things she came for, she came up to Brittney to pay for her purchases. But Brittney pulled her aside and then called out to her manager that she was going out on her break. She led Alison outside the store, ignoring Alison's protests that she hadn't yet paid her for the cosmetics she was carrying in her hands.

"Shhh!" whispered Brittney. "Be quiet about that! Come on, I've got some important stuff to talk to you about." The two girls walked outside the mall over next to the stone wall at the side of the entry way. Brittney took the cosmetics from Alison, told her to open up her purse, and dropped them in. "Now listen!" Brittney continued, as she reached into her pocket for her cigarettes and lighter. "Susan Wilms is in trouble at school, and you've got to help!"

"What do you mean?" asked a totally surprised Alison. "Are they getting on her for wearing short skirts and for her punk haircut or something?" Brittney offered Alison a cigarette, but she waved her off.

"Shit, I wish it was that simple!" cried Brittney. "No, you know how she and John were a couple for awhile, although they've cooled it lately?" Alison nodded; she'd not seen them together but she'd heard they were going out. "And you know how Susan and I have become pretty good friends? She's even gotten me into bars and shit, and we play around with some guys we both know. Well, old fart Hawkeye found out something about all this and he's threatening her with calling her before the school board or something—he might even make her lose her job!"

"What does he have against her?" Alison asked. "Why is he doing that?" Brittney lit her cigarette and exhaled a thick plume of smoke over Alison's head.

"He just has it in for her, that's all," answered Brittney. "Maybe he doesn't like her style or something, and I KNOW he doesn't like it that she wears horseshoe taps to school sometimes. He probably thinks she's a bad influence on us!" Brittney laughed loudly while Alison smiled supportively. "Little does he know it's us kids that have changed HER!" She laughed again. "Anyway, we've got to get something on Hawkeye so he can't do that. What do you know about him that we can use to stop him from hurting Susan?"

"Gosh, Brittney," said Alison, as she tried to think. "I don't know. He doesn't talk to me much other than just to ask me about school business stuff, supplies, and so on." She thought some more. "But Brittney, umm, I do have something to tell you that just happened, and, umm, maybe this would help." She wasn't sure her night with Blake Martin had anything to do with helping Brittney, but in some ways she wanted Brittney's advice anyway, about what to do tonight, so this seemed like the right opening.

"Oh, cool!" shouted Brittney. "What is it? What did that bastard do?"

"No," said Alison as she tried to clarify. "It doesn't have anything to do with Hawkins. It's just that, umm, last night, I, uh, slept with Blake Martin. And," she quickly added, "he wants to sleep with me tonight too, and I've agreed to go to dinner with him, and,"—her voice was getting quicker and more agitated—"and I'm really not sure what to do!"

"Wow!" exclaimed Brittney. "No shit! Well, like, how is he in bed? And, I mean, do you like him?"

"Well," said Alison as she tried to answer as best she could. "I don't know. He's really very nice, and we had a good evening last night, but, like, he's married and has two kids and we were in his house, and—Brittney, could I have a cigarette?"

"Sure, sweetie," answered Brittney as she pulled out another one from her pack and extended a light to Alison. "Well, do you think Mr. Martin knows about what Hawkeye's planning to do to Susan? Do you think he'd help us stop him?" Brittney thought some more. "Alie, you know it all depends on how you feel about him, but if you decided you weren't really interested in being with him, we could maybe get him to hush up old Hawkeye. You could tell him that if he couldn't get Hawkeye to lay off, you'd feel you had to tell the school board about what he did to you last night, if you know what I mean." Alison was inhaling really deeply now.

"Look," continued Brittney. "If it was wrong for Susan to pair off with John or wrong for her and me to go out to bars then it's got to be just as wrong for a school principal who's married and has kids to be fucking his secretary, right?"

Alison burst out crying.

"Oh shit, honey!" said Brittney. "I didn't mean that. I wasn't saying anything bad about you. You haven't done anything wrong!" Brittney put her arm around Alison and stroked her hair. "It's Mr. Martin who's the guy in charge here. He's the one who led you to bed, didn't he? Hell, if you really loved him, there's no way I'd even think about asking you to tell on him, but if it's more like he's been egging you on and you don't really want to get involved with him, then that's what I was thinking of."

That explanation made Alison calm down. She wiped her eyes with her hands and took another drag on her cigarette. "Well, I brought it up because I wanted to ask you what you thought about my seeing him. I really don't want to get him in trouble over me, and I don't think I could really use him like that to get at Mr. Hawkins."

"O.K., baby," replied Brittney. "Forget I ever mentioned it. We'll think of some other way to get old Hawkeye to back off. I would really hate to lose Susan, though, wouldn't you?"

"Oh, yeah. For sure!" agreed Alison. "Susan is awesome. She's the best teacher at the school."

"Well, chicky," said Brittney. "Go out with your guy tonight and fuck him really good, and then you'll know whether you want to continue. But my advice is don't go back to his house. That's a terrible place to make love. Take him to your place. Then you can throw him out whenever you want!"

"Just kidding, kiddo," Brittney added, then changing the subject. "And enjoy your blush and your mascara and stuff!" She smiled and gave Alison a big hug.

Alison held on to Brittney for awhile, and then released her grip. She wiped her eyes one more time, gave her a kiss on the cheek, and said, "Thank you, Brittney. For a 14-year-old girl, you are really amazing."

"Shit. I'm just me!" said Brittney, and she dragged one of her loafers across the cement, her metal tap making her signature long and loud scraping sound. "The tapgirl princess!"


	21. Brittney to the Rescue

When Alison got ready to meet her boss Principal Blake Martin for dinner Saturday evening, she decided she would dress conservatively and be a little more demure and reserved than she'd been the night before. It's not that Friday evening was distasteful to her. She had enjoyed his company a lot although it did feel uncomfortable going to bed with him in the room where his wife would normally be. Talking earlier that day with Brittney made her think that a more cautious approach would be better for this evening. So although she wore a black dress with very thin shoulder-straps, it was knee-length and came up fairly high in front. On her feet were a pair of tall, 3-inch heel patent leather boots, but these did not have the metal taps that were on almost all her other shoes.

When Alison got to the restaurant, Blake was waiting for her in the lounge. She walked over to him, and he noticed, because it was so unusual for Alison, that her footsteps made no noise at all on the tile floor. He asked her if she wanted a drink before they got their table, and she declined. Before ordering their meals, their conversation was somewhat formal, almost as if they were doing business in the school office. Blake tried to loosen her up with a few jokes, staying away from any that were off-color, but it didn't seem to have much of an effect. Blake asked if there was anything wrong. Alison shook her head from side to side.

Blake decided at that point that Alison must be testing him to make sure that he liked her for something else besides the sex they had the night before. So from that point on, he began treating her with all the charm he could muster. He complimented her on the way she looked, and he managed to stifle a comment about his disappointment that she'd worn boots without metal taps. He suggested she might like the Coquille St. Jacques for her entré—a dish he'd had there before and that happened to be the most expensive item on the menu. He ordered a bottle of Pillot Chassagne-Montrachet, the best French white wine in the house. When the wine was brought to their table, he toasted her as "the best reason to work at Forest Glen High," and "To our friendship." He asked her more about her own life growing up, building on what he'd learned the night before. He asked her for her views about current local and national issues and shared his own, careful not to contradict hers but to build on them.

By the time Alison had finished her third glass of wine and a chocolate flambéed desert, she was much more relaxed and ready to enjoy herself. When the dance band started up at the club next door, they could hear the music in the restaurant.

"How about we go over to the 21-Club next door?" Blake suggested. "Do you enjoy dancing?"

"Yes. Sure!" replied Alison. "I love to dance."

So for the next three hours, almost until midnight, Blake and Alison danced and drank their way back into each other's arms, picking up where they'd left off the night before. Occasionally, he would use his cell phone to see if his wife had tried to reach him at home, but there were no messages.

"Tonight, can we go to my place instead?" asked Alison. "I felt somewhat uncomfortable at your house last night."

"Yes, that was pretty stupid of me to take you there," agreed Blake. "I called my wife today and told her that I was going to bed early tonight because I was going fishing in the morning with a buddy, so I don't think I'll be getting any calls at home at least until tomorrow afternoon." After a respectable hour of avoiding alcohol so they'd be in a position to drive back to town, the two of them walked outside into the cool night air and into their separate vehicles. Blake made one last check for messages on his home phone, and he pronounced himself safe. He followed Alison's directions and arrived at her apartment building right behind her car.

Because Alison wasn't expecting the evening to progress to this point, she hadn't cleaned up her apartment at all. There were clothes and magazines all over the living room. But by this point, both of them were ready for bedroom action, and they walked right past the mess and into Alison's bedroom. Love making was much better for both of them this night. Despite her initial reservations, by the end of the evening Alison had become totally comfortable with what they were doing. Soon they were engaged in prolonged love-making, much more satisfying than the quick and awkward one they'd had the night before.

In the morning, they slept late and Alison, up first, made omelets, toast, and coffee. After breakfast they took an easy stroll in the brisk morning air, Blake still dressed in his dating-and-dancing clothes from the night before. Alison, making up for her silent footwear of the previous evening, had on a pair of flats with size #7 Eagle heel plates that made more noise than any other pair of shoes she had. Then they said their goodbyes and spent the rest of their Sunday regrouping themselves for the work week ahead.

On Monday, Brittney came into the office before 2nd period to ask Alison about how Saturday night went with Mr. Martin, and she was relieved that the stress she'd unintentionally created in Alison at the mall on Saturday afternoon didn't ruin her evening. Brittney also asked Alison if she'd heard any talk about how Mr. Hawkins was going to dump on Susan Wilms, but nothing about that had come up yet, at least in her earshot.

"If I do hear anything, I will be sure to let you know," Alison told her.

Another visitor to Alison's desk that morning was her one-time date, Coach Jack Youngblood. Alison, still feeling good about her weekend, was in a particularly playful mood, and Coach Youngblood picked up on that and started flirting with her, holding her hands and then actually sneaking a kiss on the nape of her neck. Just then Mr. Martin came out of his office and noticed the two of them apparently in a romantic moment. He glared at Alison, and then turned around and went back into his office.

Over the next couple of days, whenever Mr. Martin happened to see Alison chatting and joking around with a male teacher or even a student—and that happened several times each day—he would frown or glare, and annoyance would show on his face. One time when she was talking with Jack Youngblood again, Blake shouted at her to come into his office, but when she obeyed, he had only a request that she refill his cup of coffee.

Then, on Tuesday, after school, he and Alison had a small flare-up around some paperwork he claimed she had filled out incorrectly. Alison was getting a little angry about Blake's attitude towards her, so she thought she'd better say something to clarify his intentions. When it seemed like everyone had gone for the day, Alison knocked on Blake's door, and when he invited her in, instead of sitting down on the interview chair like she usually did when she was getting instructions from him, she walked straight up to him.

"Blake," she began. "What's gotten into you the past couple of days? You've been really spouting off at me. I thought after last weekend, this would be a really nice week between us."

"Well, Alison," he countered. "I might say the same about you! I thought after last weekend, you'd treat me a little differently around here."

"How am I supposed to treat you?" she asked. "What do you want me to do? Put my arms around you and follow you around like a puppy?"

"Well, no, but that doesn't mean you should be putting your arms around other men here?"

"Like who have I done that to?"

"Like Jack Youngblood, for instance," he answered.

"I didn't have my arms around him, and anyway, even if I did what's wrong with that? You want to treat me like I'm your property?" she asked incredulously.

"Well, no, but I thought that after last weekend, you'd pay more attention to me in the office, and not go 'round flirting with all the boys and the male teachers."

Alison was a little surprised by this show of possessiveness, not a trait she'd seen in Blake before now. But she figured this conversation wasn't getting anywhere, so she thought she'd just make a quick exit. Maybe Blake would cool off over night. "Well, I don't know that I flirt with all the boys, but o.k., whatever. Good night, Blake. See you in the morning."

Their little spat made Alison go into a little funk, and on Wednesday morning she didn't feel any better. She wore quiet shoes (sneakers this time), which she tended to do when she was unhappy about things. She politely greeted all the students and the teachers who came into the office for things they needed to get from her or questions they needed answered, but she treated everyone with a little more dispatch and seriousness than usual. Meanwhile, she saw that Blake was watching over her every move. The door to his office was open wider than usual and he'd positioned himself to have a clear view of her various conversations with people at the office counter.

This was not the Blake she'd been with over the weekend, or even the Blake she'd known last week and before. By the end of the day, she'd about had it with him. She happened to see Brittney Davis walking out of the school building, so she called out to her in a loud whisper through her open window.

"Brittney! I need to talk with you. I'll call you in about an hour, o.k.?" When Alison finally got off work and got into her car and started driving home, she immediately put in a call to Brittney on her cell phone.

"Brittney, Blake is really acting strange this week. He was so nice over the weekend, and we had such a great time Saturday night—and great sex too! I don't understand. He's being incredibly possessive towards me, like he owns me or something. I don't think I want to be in a relationship with him. I don't know. So do you still want me to say something to him about Mr. Hawkins and Susan, or has that blown over?"

"Shit, Alison, I'm really sorry about how Blake's treating you. I didn't think he was such a wimp! But, no, Susan's still in trouble. She told me yesterday that Hawkeye threatened her personally that if she didn't stop socializing with us students, he would get her fired. What a dork he is!

"But," continued Brittney, "I don't want to get you personally involved in this. You'd end up losing your job. I just want your o.k. for me to talk to Mr. Martin myself. I didn't want to do that as long as you wanted to keep your affair going, but if that's not going to happen then I think we can use that to make things right for Susan—and, for me too! I don't want to lose my ticket into those bars and to the guys we meet there!"

The next morning, Brittney sauntered into school in the toughest looking outfit she could put together— almost like a goth girl. She had on black lipstick, and wore black jeans and a black men's shirt (which of course made her platinum hair stand out even more). And on her feet she had on her new heavy hiking boots with double horseshoe heel plates and five taps around the sole of each boot.

About five minutes into second period, Brittney got up from her seat in Mr. Wilson's algebra class and walked towards the door.

"Where are you going, Miss Davis?" shouted Mr. Wilson.

"I've got some business to take care of," she replied in her sassiest voice.

"Well, you can do your business after class." Brittney kept walking, her loud steel heel plates getting the attention of everyone in the room. "In fact, if you don't come back to your seat, I'm going to have you sent to the office."

"Well, Mr. Wilson, actually that's where I'm going. I've got an appointment to talk with Mr. Martin." Brittney looked back at her teacher, made a huge grin, and turned and marched out of the room.

When she got to the office, she asked Alison if Mr. Martin was in and what kind of mood he was in.

"Oh, yeah, he's in there. I don't think he's speaking to me, at least not more than he has to."

"Well, I'll give him something to think about," said Brittney. "Would you tell him I want to talk to him about something really important?"

Alison called him on the intercom. "Mr. Martin? There's a student here to see you and she says it's really important…. Uh, huh, it's Brittney Davis, the girl who does the taps checking." Then, turning to Brittney, she holds her hand over the phone, and whispered, "He wants to know what it's about. What shall I tell him?"

"Just tell him its about Hawkeye. He'll know why I'm here."

"Uh," said Alison into the phone. "She says its about Mr. Hawkins. That's all she told me." She listened for Mr. Martin's response and turned to Brittney. "Mr. Martin said he could see you now." She hung up the phone, and whispered to Brittney, "Good luck, sweetie."

Mr. Martin came to the door, opened it, and let Brittney in, taking the opportunity to glare at Alison one more time. The noise of Brittney's steel-tapped boots reverberated in the otherwise quiet office. This distracted Mr. Martin momentarily and he started to think about Alison again, whose metal taps had become central to the attraction he felt towards her. But then he regained control of his thoughts.

As Brittney sat down in the chair offered to her, Mr. Martin started to speak. "You said you wanted to talk about Mr. Hawkins. By any chance does this also have to do with Ms Wilms?"

Brittney nodded, "Yeah, sort of. Mr. Hawkins is out to get her, isn't he?"

"Well," continued Mr. Martin. "Mr. Hawkins has spoken to Ms Wilms about this. She has been seen socializing with you and other students in the evening including taking you to a place where alcohol is served—a bar, in other words. You know, Brittney, teachers aren't supposed to be doing that. It's a clear violation of her contract and beyond that I can't speak about it because it's a personnel matter."

"Well, Mr. Martin, I don't really want to talk much about Ms Wilms except to say that she's a wonderful teacher and a true friend, and there are hundreds of kids at Forest Glen who feel like I do and would go to the end of the world to help prevent anything bad happening to her."

"Well, then, Brittney, thank you for your opinion, but I can't help you any more about that."

"Mr. Martin, I have something else to say."

"About Mr. Hawkins?"

"Well, sort of. It's also about you."

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean is that principals aren't supposed to be having affairs with their secretaries, and …"

"Hold it a minute, young lady!" Mr. Martin interrupted. "What are you insinuating?"

"What I'm insinuating, sirrrr," she said in an exaggerated way, "is that you are probably breaking your contract yourself, or if you're not doing that you're certainly breaking your marriage vows…."

Mr. Martin interrupted again. He slammed a book down on his desk, picked up his phone, and started to approach the door to the receptionist's office.

"Wait! Stop!" shouted Brittney. "If you're trying to involve Alison in this don't bother! She doesn't know anything about my knowing about this. I learned about it from a couple of friends, one who saw you and her together at a bar on Friday evening and another who happens to live next door to Alison in the apartments and knows you stayed over there Saturday night."

Mr. Martin was quite flustered and didn't know quite what to say. More subdued, he spoke to Brittney in almost a whisper, "Brittney, what is the point you are trying to make? Why did you come here to accuse me of these things—which, by the way, I deny. I'm just trying to figure out why you are saying this to me."

"Well, Mr. Martin, I'm glad you asked. See, I don't think it would be right for Ms Wilms to get in trouble for socializing with me if you didn't get in trouble for doing what you did with Miss Dexter," as Brittney referred to Alison, hoping to distance herself from her actual friend, at least in Mr. Martin's mind.

"But,…"

"Wait," continued Brittney, unwilling to be interrupted at this point. "I'm not trying to get you in trouble. I really don't want to have to do that. But it's also important to me—and to hundreds of students here—that nothing be done against Ms Wilms. She's a great teacher, and, as I've said, lots and lots of us students look up to her. She was the first teacher at the school to put taps on her shoes which shows how well she relates to us students, doesn't it? Plus, you have to admit, she's one of the cutest women on this campus, isn't she?"

Mr. Martin was hardly thinking much about how cute Susan Wilms was at that point, nor even how much he liked hearing her walk around the school in the loud steel-tipped heels she usually wore. He was thinking about his own career and his stature in this small town—not to mention his own marriage! He was also thinking that he really did want to keep his private affair going with Alison, if only he could get her stop flirting with other men and boys at school. He was quiet for a moment after Brittney finished talking.

"Miss Davis," he began. "I'm not normally in the business of making deals with students, but you do present me with a situation where maybe we both could get what we want. What I would like from you is a commitment not to continue to see Ms Wilms socially—that means no bars, no Saturday walks in the woods, no evenings at her apartment—and also that you can prevail on other students—and I have one particular young man in mind, someone who I understand you know very well yourself—to stay away from her as well. You can all be friends here at school; I have no objection to that. But socializing with Ms Wilms, or indeed with any teacher away from school grounds, is to be strictly off limits. As long as you can maintain that decorum yourself and among your friends as well, then I will prevail upon Mr. Hawkins to drop his plans to discipline Ms Wilms—that, and of course, as long as you completely put out of your head and totally out of your mouth any mention of any presumed relationship or other impropriety between myself and Miss Dexter. Is that absolutely clear?"

Brittney hadn't planned on that other requirement—about not being able to go bar-hopping with Susan anymore. But, for once, she thought about someone else besides herself, and thought, gee, maybe I've saved Susan's job! So this sounded pretty good. But she couldn't resist one last ploy.

"Mr. Martin," she said slowly. "I think that basically this is a pretty good solution for you, and for Ms Wilms—no I think this will be really great for her—but for me and my friends it's kind of a mixed situation. I mean we get to keep her as a teacher and as someone we can go to for advice in her room, but if I agree to this, me and my friends are going to have to give up socializing with one of our best friends and missing out on lots of fun that we've been having and that hasn't hurt anyone. I mean I don't have a boyfriend or a spouse that I'm cheating on!" (She thought she would rub the point in about his marital transgression, just in case he'd forgotten what she had over him.)

"Don't…" Mr. Martin began, but again Brittney wouldn't be interrupted.

"No, wait! I want to make one more suggestion for you to consider—something that I think would be a lot of fun—something I know that the kids would like a lot, and probably some of the teachers would too. It's on a different topic altogether. I was thinking of a way to bring the students and the teachers together as more of a community—you know, a school spirit kind of thing where we all do the same thing together? Well, what I'm thinking of is this: You know how us kids have enjoyed walking around the school with metal taps on our shoes, and even a lot of the teachers have started to do that too—Miss Allen, and Mrs. Rogers and Ms Jackson and Ms Abrams—you know, lots of the teachers have. But not all of them have. Like I don't think you have taps on any of your shoes, do you?"

"No, I don't actually," said Mr. Martin, although he'd thought of putting taps on his shoes because he thought that might draw Alison closer to him.

"Well, what I want to suggest—and really this is just a suggestion cuz I'm going to go along with the agreement you talked about anyway—but what I think would be really cool would be an "all taps day" or even an "all taps week" where everyone at school—the teachers, the kitchen and custodial help, and the students of course—would all wear metal taps on their shoes. You could even make it a requirement, like how we check taps at the door for scratchy surfaces? We could check people's shoes that day to make sure that they had taps on them. And if they didn't, we could have John Baker—he's someone in my class who has a portable setup to put taps on people's shoes—anyway, John Baker could put the taps on for free right outside the school doors. People wouldn't have to wear them after the "all taps day" was over—we'd take them off if they didn't want them on their shoes anymore. But I think a lot of non-tap-wearers would decide they liked them on their shoes and keep wearing them the rest of the school year. Anyway, that's my idea."

"Brittney, you sure are quite a girl!" Mr. Martin thought about how this would be a good way to explain to his wife why he had suddenly put taps on his work shoes. He also smiled when he thought of requiring Mr. Hawkins to wear taps on his shoes—that old fart would just about crap in his pants! "O.K., I like it. I will ask Alison, er Miss Dexter, to check the schedule and see what day next week would be best. Heck, though, why not make it a full week, like you suggested. All right, next week will be "All Taps Week at Forest Glen High." I hereby appoint you Tap Mistress for the Week, and it will be your job to organize this and make sure that it works. Now, are we friends again?"

And that is how Susan Wilms got off the hook that was almost thrown her way, how for one week everyone at school wore metal taps on their shoes—even Hawkeye—and how Blake and Alison well…, how they remained casual and occasional lovers, with only Alison and Brittney (and Susan) aware of the complex little dance that led to this resolution. There remained a certain amount of stress between Alison and Blake over Blake's possessive attitudes. But that was to be expected in an environment where a cute 19-year old platinum blonde with loud dance taps on her shoes had many would-be suitors, both young and old, including a Mr. Jack Youngblood, Coach of the soon-to-be state championship baseball team. And as for Brittney, going to bars wasn't so important to her anyway. She had a lot of other ways to get guys, and it was time for her to move on and try some of those out.


	22. All Taps Week Slays its Prey

"All Taps Week" arrived none too soon for Brittney and John and all the other kids who'd worked so hard over the previous several days to plan this event. Principal Martin himself made the announcement on the public address system on Friday morning, having made some slight edits to the script written by Brittney and her friends.

"Good morning, students. The student tap-checking committee, led by Miss Brittney Davis, has proposed having an 'All Taps Week' at Forest Glen High. The committee has worked hard all Spring long to make sure that students and teachers who want to wear metal taps on their shoes at school can do so without risk of harming the polished floors that our custodial staff has worked so hard to maintain. As a reward for their efforts, I have agreed with the committee's proposal. We are asking that all faculty, staff, and students at the school who have not yet put metal taps on their shoes allow the student committee to temporarily attach metal taps to the heels of the shoes that they wear to school next week. Or, if you wish to have taps put on professionally, you may go to Mr. Sam DiMaggio's shoe repair shop on Main Street, and he will attach them to your shoes at no charge, both heel taps and toe taps. Although we hope that all of you will join us and participate in 'all taps week,' we recognize that some of you may need to wear shoes that will not accept metal taps—sneakers or heavily treaded shoes—for example, the kitchen staff because your job requires them or, in the case of students, your family may require you to do so. That will be o.k., and there will be no punishment for those of you who cannot participate. However, all administrative staff will be expected to participate and that includes myself, of course, and Mr. Hawkins. Beginning at lunch today and continuing before school and at lunch all of next week, anyone who wants to have metal taps put on his or her shoes can come to the area in front of the fountain and the student committee will attach the taps to your shoes. The students assure me that they can pull the heel taps off easily at the end of next week if you decide you don't want to continue wearing them on your shoes. That is the only announcement for today. Thank you."

Immediately, throughout the school, cheers went up in every classroom.

"Holy shit, Brittney," cried out Christina, a girl in her 2nd period class. "How did you get Mr. Martin to do that? And even Mr. Hawkins, I mean Hawkeye, is going to have to wear taps. I can't wait to see that!"

"I guess that means you too, huh, Mr. Wilson?" said Jessica to her algebra teacher. She giggled. "Are you going to put horseshoe taps on yours?" she added with another laugh.

In the faculty lounge, where a few teachers who didn't have a second period class had gathered to talk or smoke or work, there was a bit of muttering about the dictatorial administration. "I'll bet Doris Jackson was behind this, or Alan Hooke," said middle-aged history teacher Jean Allen, mentioning the head counselor and the registrar. "They put taps on their shoes, just like the kids do, and just like those vampy sisters, Susan Wilms and Sandra Abrams, do."

"I don't think this is Doris' or Alan's idea," said biology teacher Lynn Friedman. "I'm guessing that Alison Dexter put old Martin up to this. You've heard her scraping her taps along the floors, haven't you? She sounds just like a ninth grader! And she's got Blake wrapped around her finger! Have you ever seen them together? He'll do anything she says!" She raised her head and rolled her eyes.

Not all of the teachers felt that way, though. Brandi Thomas, a young Art and Drama teacher, was also in the lounge at the time, and she took offense at those comments. "I don't see what you're so down on taps for," she interjected. "I have metal taps on my own shoes. See!" and she slipped off one of her flats and held it up for the others to see—a nice-sized #5 Eagle plate on the heel and a smaller one under the toe. "They're really quite harmless and they do protect your shoes from needing repair."

"Well, if that's all you wanted to do, you could get plastic or nylon taps. They do the same thing," one of the other teachers replied.

"It's not the same," answered Brandi, although somewhat lamely. "The metal ones are much better. Well, I guess you'll find that out next week, won't you!" she added, with a bit of smirk.

John Baker, the student with the portable tap-attaching gear, had enlisted Barry Browne to help him put the taps on people's shoes in the lunch area. He'd figured that there were still maybe 80 kids who didn't yet have taps on their shoes, in addition to most of the 80 to 100 adults who worked at the school. And since people didn't wear the same shoes everyday, there would probably be 200 pairs of shoes needing taps put on over the next few days. However, he forgot that many of the teachers would prefer to have their taps put on at Sam's Shoe Repair, and he didn't even consider the possibility that not all of the teachers would go along with the idea.

Brittney, however, was definitely worried about whether the teachers would just ignore Mr. Martin's request. On the morning Principal Martin made his announcement, Brittney skipped her 4th period English class and walked over to the office to talk with Alison. Together the two of them went in to see Mr. Martin, and they persuaded him to personally try to convince some of the teachers and staff to have taps put on their shoes. He agreed to go around to the teachers during lunch and during their break periods and encourage them to participate. He also said he'd be a good example and be one of the first to have John Baker put taps on his shoes—and he was secretly excited about doing that.

So at the start of the lunch period, Brittney, Alison, and Mr. Martin went to the fountain area where John and Barry were finishing setting up their equipment. There were already some students waiting, but the students happily let Mr. Martin go ahead of them.

"O.K., Mr. Martin," said Barry to his principal. "What size taps do you want on your oxfords?"

Mr. Martin turned to his secretary. "Alison, what size would you say…. Well, what size do you have on your loafers?"

"Umm, on these shoes I think I have #7's. Aren't these #7's, Barry?" Alison raised one of her shoes so Barry could get a closer look.

"Yup, they're #7s, Miss Dexter." Barry took one of Mr. Martin's shoes and looked at it closely. "But, Mr. Martin, it looks to me like the heels on your shoes are already worn down some. I wouldn't put on #7's because that size doesn't have any bend to it. The taps wouldn't conform to the shape of the heels, and then they would sound really clinky. I'd suggest that you let me put on #5s. They're kind of small, but they curve more than the others do so they'd fit to your heels better."

"Well, o.k. I'll take #5's then." But he thought to himself: This is embarrassing. My own secretary has bigger taps on her loafers than I'm going to have on these shoes. Tomorrow, I will have to take another pair of shoes to Sam's and have him put bigger taps on. But these will have to do for now.

While John finished putting the taps on Mr. Martin's shoes, another 20 or so people gathered around. But it was mostly students, and most of the students who were watching already had taps on their shoes anyway. Brittney looked a little worried. She took Mr. Martin by the arm and with her other hand took Alison's hand. "Come on," she said. "We've got to round up some teachers!"

On their way to the teacher's lunch room, they ran into Jack Youngblood, going in the opposite direction.

"Hey, Jack," said Mr. Martin. "Are you going to participate in this taps thing…you know, just for school spirit and all?"

"Of course!" answered Coach Youngblood. "That's where I'm headed right now. I figure if all these women teachers are going to be having taps on their shoes, us men better be represented too, right?" He gave out a chuckle and waved goodbye to the threesome as he went to find John's tapping-station.

Mr. Martin, Alison, and Brittney went into the teacher's lunch room, all three of them now making clicking sounds with their taps as they walked, although the girls' taps were much louder. The first teachers they ran into were Jean Allen and Lynn Friedman, the two who had expressed skeptical attitudes about this idea in the teachers' lounge earlier that morning.

"Hello, Jean. Hello Lynn," greeted Mr. Martin. "I hope you will be joining us in 'All Taps Week' by wearing metal taps on your shoes next week. You'll be doing that, won't you?" he asked confidently for confirmation.

"I don't think so, Blake," replied the older woman, Mrs. Allen.

"Oh? I'm sorry to hear that." He turned to Alison. "Alison, what was it that Mrs. Allen asked me for last week? It had something to do with her schedule next year, wasn't it?"

"Yes, Mr. Martin. Mrs. Allen was hoping you would assign her to two periods of Advanced Placement U.S. History."

"Oh, that's right. Thank you." He smiled at Mrs. Allen. Then he turned to Lynn Friedman, the biology teacher. "How about you, Lynn? Do you think you'll be having taps on your shoes next week? I can understand if you'd rather not have students put the taps on your shoes. But Sam DiMaggio is an excellent shoemaker, and I'm sure he will do a good job with whatever you bring to him."

At that point, the older teacher, Ms Allen, glared at Brittney and then at Alison and then she motioned to the girls to step away.

Alison said, "We'll wait outside for you, Mr. Martin." Then she and Brittney quickly clicked and clacked out of the room.

Ms Allen continued: "Blake, come on, was this your idea or are you just coddling up to the kids and that teenage secretary of yours?"

"Jean," replied Mr. Martin. "Alison had absolutely nothing to do with it. Yes, it was the students' idea—I certainly wouldn't have thought of it." (Which was true—he wouldn't have thought of it, but he frankly loved it.) "But look, it's the end of the school year. It's time we gave something back to the kids. They're a good group, and I'm happy to do this if it makes them happy."

"Well, o.k." said Lynn. "I will participate. Tomorrow, I'll take a couple pair of shoes in to Sam's Shoe Shop and have some small taps put on them, but only for next week. Then they're coming off when the week is over."

"Thank you, Lynn. The kids will appreciate that. And how about you, Jean? Will you go along?"

"I'll think about it, Blake." She gave him a sour smile.

"Well, that's good. And I'll be thinking about your request for A.P. course sections. Have a nice weekend." Mr. Martin smiled knowingly at Ms Allen and then turned and went to the door of the lunchroom. Alison and Brittney were waiting just outside. He reported to them his mixed progress with the two women teachers. Then the girls left and Mr. Martin went back inside and engaged several other groups of teachers in similar conversations.

Meanwhile, Jack Youngblood had gotten to the tap-attaching-station and saw that John was putting taps on one student's shoes and two more students were waiting in line. He talked to the first student in line, Mary Jo, a pretty junior who he knew from his exercise class. Mary Jo was raised in a strict Catholic home, and she was one of the few girls who had not yet put taps on her shoes.

"Mary Jo, don't you already have taps on your shoes?" inquired Coach Youngblood.

"No, Coach. These will be my first." She smiled. She'd secretly longed to have taps on her shoes and so this "school requirement" was just perfect for her. She walked over to Coach Youngblood and whispered in his ear, "My parents haven't allowed me put taps on my shoes before. But now I can tell them it's a school rule! I have to put them on, right?"

"That's right," he assured her. "And you don't have to tell them it's just for a week!"

Mary Jo nodded in agreement. "Maybe when the week's over, they might not care any more. But I think I'll put on small taps for now just to keep things simple at home."

The Coach shrugged his shoulders. "Well, you can do it that way if you want," he said. "But if you want to have large taps on your shoes, now is a good opportunity to do it since it's beyond your control, right? You can tell them that's the size they're putting on everyone's shoes!"

"That's a good idea! I'll tell them that. Thanks!"

So when John had finished putting taps on the shoes of the boy ahead of her in line, Mary Jo asked him what size taps he had put on.

"They're #8's. Is that the size you want on your shoes? Let me see if they'll fit."

Mary Jo took off her penny loafers and handed them to John. John took one of the 2-and-a-half inch long size 8 Eagle plates and measured it up against one of Mary Jo's loafers.

"Yeah, I can get them on—they'll be angled more than usual, and they'll go from the back of the heel almost to the front, but they'll fit. Do you want them?"

Mary Jo looked at Coach with a quizzical look. "Do I want these?" she mouthed.

He shook his head up and down enthusiastically, and gave her a big smile.

She turned back to John. "Yes, please. Those will be fine."

While this was going on, Jack was thinking about what size taps to put on his own oxfords. Originally, he'd been thinking of #7s, but when he saw the #8's being put on Mary Jo's loafers, he realized he couldn't take anything smaller. Then, when the boy directly in front of him in line asked John for horseshoe taps for his motorcycle boots, that reminded him that two of his favorite people, Susan Wilms and her sister, the librarian Sandy Abrams, both wore horseshoe taps to work the last time he'd seen them. So he decided that he should have horseshoes put on his shoes also.

As John was hammering the horseshoe taps into the heels of his oxfords, the coach asked him, "John, what about toe taps?"

"Coach, Mr. Martin said we should only put heel taps on because we agreed to take them off after a week, and if we took off the toe taps, they'd leave holes in the soles that would get your feet wet when it rained."

"But what if I'm not planning to take the taps off after next week—what if I want them on permanently?"

"Well, then I guess it's o.k."

"Good. Then put some toe taps on—medium-sized ones like about so long." He held up his right hand and made about a 2-inch space between his thumb and forefinger."

"Yeah, number 5's. That's a good size."

On Saturday, Sam's Shoe Repair was busier than usual. All day long there were two, three, or even four people waiting to have metal taps put on their shoes, and some people brought in two or three pairs to have fixed up with taps. Sam worked as fast as he could, and he even hired John Baker to help him.

About 1:30 in the afternoon, Principal Martin walked into the shop. He recognized all four people waiting in the shop as being from Forest Glen High—Anna Williams, a teacher's aide; Michael Gordon, an English teacher; and two 12th grade girls.

"Hello Mrs. Williams, Mr. Gordon, girls," he nodded to each of them as he came into the shop. "What a coincidence we're all here today!" He smiled and the others smiled back, understanding he was referring to "all taps week."

His arrival made a buzzer ring in the back, so Sam came out to greet his new customer. "Hello, Mr. Martin. Nice to see you this afternoon."

"Hi Sam," said Mr. Martin. "I see we're keeping you quite busy today. Don't forget to keep track of how many pairs of taps you're putting on for us. The school will reimburse you at the end of next week."

Principal Martin handed Sam the two pairs of shoes he brought in with him--some black dressy high-top shoes (like ankle boots, but with laces and leather soles) and some brown casual penny loafers. He spoke to Sam in a whisper, hoping the others wouldn't hear. "Sam, on these black shoes, could you put on the largest size taps that you have? I want to be sure the students notice that I am participating in their event next week. On the brown loafers, I'd like some horseshoe taps, if you can do that. And toe taps too on both pair." He'd decided he wanted horseshoe taps to impress Alison the next time they got together outside of school.

After Sam took his shoes from him and returned to his workbench, Mr. Martin turned back to talk to his co-workers. "Anna and Mike, thanks for participating in this event. I'm sure the students really appreciate it." Then he asked for confirmation of this point from the two senior girls waiting. "Girls, isn't it nice that your teachers participate in these student-planned activities?"

One of the girls, a mature looking girl with long streaked blonde hair and glasses, looked up from the magazine she was reading and nodded politely. But the other girl, a dark-haired heavy-set girl, with spaces between her teeth, looked at Mr. Martin disdainfully and said, "Whatever. I don't quite get making the teachers put taps on their shoes. I mean it's really none of your business whether they put taps on their shoes or not."

Mr. Martin responded to her impolite challenge, "Well, sometimes it's good when the whole school does something together, don't you think?"

Just then Sam brought out some of the shoes he and John had been working on. He gave back to the dark-haired girl a pair of chunky-heeled black goth-looking boots with thick rubber soles. He pointed to the horseshoe plates he'd put on the heels and the #4 taps he'd put on the sides and the toes. "These are what you wanted, right?"

"Yeah, that's what my friend Caroline said I should get. I've never put side taps on before, but Caroline said these boots would be good with them."

Sam smiled. "Yes, I think so too."

Then he gave three pairs of shoes to the girl with glasses—some skimmer flats with #5 taps; a pair of white open toed 2-inch heeled sandals with #2 taps, the largest that would fit on the little heels; and finally a pair of Bass Weejun penny loafers with horseshoe heel plates like on her friend's boots. "You didn't want toe taps, right?—not even with the horseshoe taps on the loafers?" he asked. She nodded. "I don't see the point of toe taps. It's your heels that make the noise, not your toes!"

Sam turned to speak to the adults. "I'll have your shoes out in a minute."

Meanwhile, Mr. Martin was watching the girls with interest. 'Glasses' slipped into her horseshoe-plated loafers. Then she fished into her backpack for a pack of cigarettes while 'toothless' was tying the laces on her boots. The two girls didn't say anything as they got up and walked out of the shop, clip-clopping on the floor, and then on the cement outside. As they each lit cigarettes and started walking down the street, 'glasses' shrugged her shoulders and then both girls started laughing. Having metal taps on their shoes was apparently something they enjoyed but didn't see the point of making it a school spirit type of thing.

Much the same could be said for Anna and Mike, although for each it was their first pair of shoes they'd put metal taps on.

"So, are you getting horseshoe taps on your shoes like those girls did?" asked Mr. Martin of his two fellow staff members.

"No, sir," replied Mike, the English teacher. "I am just putting some crescent-shaped taps on the shoes I wear to school just like you asked us to do."

"Well, I'm glad you're helping out."

"Well, I'm partly putting them on because my wife wanted me to. She's been wearing shoes with metal taps for the past few weeks, and she keeps saying I should do it, too. So when I told her you asked the teachers to wear taps on our shoes this next week, she said I had to do it. She almost came here with me to make sure I'd get big enough ones, but I told her not to worry. I asked Sam for the biggest ones he had."

"The taps that Sam's putting on my shoes are big ones too," said Anna. "I've been working with Sandy Abrams in the library and saw what she put on her boots, so I figured if a librarian could have really big steel taps on then I could too."

Just then Sam came out with Anna and Mike's shoes. On Mike's two pairs of oxfords, he'd put identically sized taps—number 8's on the heels and number 6's on the toes. Anna's oxfords had 6's and 4's, and her loafers had 7's and 5's.

Mike commented that the toe taps were smaller than the taps on the heels. "Is that usual?" he asked.

Sam replied, "I pretty much always suggest two sizes smaller on the toes than on the heels—they look best that way," Sam said. He turned to Mr. Martin. "That's what I did with yours too, Mr. Martin." He brought out the two pair for the principal. His oxfords with #8s and #6s, just like Mike's. And on the penny loafers, horseshoe taps on the heels and #8's on the toes.

Mike seemed surprised by the horseshoe taps. "Blake, are you going to be wearing those horseshoe taps to school this week?"

"No, they're mostly for wearing on weekends and evenings."

"Oh, did your wife want you to wear taps, too?"

"Well, no. I just thought I'd see what it was like having horseshoe taps on. The boys at school sure seem to enjoy them!" Of course, he didn't tell her anything about trying to impress his secretary, Alison.

On Monday, the first day of "all taps week," although not everyone participated, Brittney was still pleased because almost half of all the adults (besides the custodians and kitchen help) had taps on their heels. She figured that was probably five times as many adults with taps on their shoes as before. And Monday at lunch, John was still busy putting taps on more shoes, with most of his "customers" being teachers.

But there'd been one noticeable hold-out among the administrative staff—Mr. Hedley Hawkins, the school vice-principal. He was wearing noticeably soft-soled casual oxfords, with the kind of soles that if you put taps on they'd sound like clinkety-clinkety little girls' dancing taps.

At lunch, Alison made a comment about that to Mr. Martin. "Aren't you going to say something to him, Blake?" she asked him privately. "I mean this is part of your agreement with Brittney, right?" She put her hand on his arm, looked straight into his face, and then clicked her heel taps on the floor.

"Well, we have pretty good participation from most of the faculty," he responded, hoping that would satisfy her.

"Yes, that's true," said Brittney firmly. "But Mr. Hawkins has to do this too. If he won't get taps put on his shoes, we'll have to do it for him. And if he insists on wearing soft-soled shoes like he's wearing today, we'll just have to find out his size and go buy him a pair of shoes and give them to him with taps already on them." She was dead serious, and Blake Martin knew it.

When Alison mentioned this problem to Brittney, the tapgirl princess decided to take the matter into her own hands. So right after last period, Brittney went to seek out her nemesis, the vice-principal, herself. She found him patrolling the hall at the side entrance to the building. All around him, students were clicking and clacking their way outside heading for their cars or the buses that would take them home.

"Hey, there, Mr. Hawkins," called out Brittney.

He was surprised to hear Brittney's voice being so friendly. "Hello, Brittney," he answered. "How was school for you today?"

"It was really nice. My classes were really interesting." She hoped he wouldn't ask her about them, though, because honestly she hadn't paid attention to anything her teachers said. Her mind had been focused on "all taps week," like thinking about which teachers had new taps on their shoes and which ones didn't have them yet.

"Hey, Mr. Hawkins. Those are really nice-looking shoes you have on. What size are they, like about size 8?"

Before he realized why Brittney had asked him, he immediately blurted out a correction. "No, Brittney, they're size 9's. Why do you ask?"

"Oh, no reason. Thanks! Bye!" and off she went to find Alison, in such a hurry she forgot to scrape her heels on the floor in front of Mr. Hawkins, which she usually did in order to annoy him.

"Alison," said Brittney when she reached the main office. "Hawkeye wears size 9. What guys do we know, you think, who wear a size 9 and would be willing to loan a pair of their shoes to us for Hawkeye to wear?"

"I dunno, Brittney, why don't you just ask all these students around here?"

"Damn, of course!" cried Brittney. "I better hurry. Everyone's leaving campus already." She scurried off in the direction of the buses where she figured she'd find kids in large enough numbers to meet her need.

"Listen up, everyone," said Brittney, after she boarded an almost full bus and asked the bus driver to wait a minute before taking off. "Do any of you boys wear a size 9 and have an extra pair of shoes, preferably with big taps on them, that you could loan me for the week?"

"You into men's shoes now, Brittney?" called out one of the guys.

"No, of course not. I need a pair of size 9's to put on Hawkeye's feet tomorrow. He won't put taps on his own shoes, so I told Mr. Martin I would get him some if he would make Hawkeye wear them!"

"Way to go, Brittney!" yelled several of the kids.

"I've got some size 9 zippered dress boots I can give you," said Jose Martinez, one of the sophomore boys. "They have taps on them."

"Are the taps big, and are they noisy?" asked Brittney.

"Oh, yeah," said Jose. "They're what my grandpa called Pachuco taps, like what he put on his shoes when he was young."

"What's that?"

"Oh, they're just horseshoe taps. That's just what he and his friends called them. I'll bring them in to school and give them to you tomorrow morning."

"Terrific! I can give them back to you at the end of the week…unless Hawkeye decides he can't live without them!"

So the next morning, Jose and Brittney met up before school and Brittney carried the shoes into the office and gave them to Alison who in turn brought them in to Mr. Martin's office.

"O.K., Blake. I did my part. Here are some shoes that I'm pretty sure will fit Mr. Hawkins." She handed Jose's boots to Mr. Martin, who immediately turned them over and saw the large horseshoe plates on the heels along with #3 toe taps. Alison apologized for the fact that they had horseshoe taps instead of half-moons. ("I suppose he'd take to them more if they had smaller taps on them, but it was nice enough for one of the students to loan us his shoes for Mr. Hawkins, don't you think?") Mr. Martin acknowledged the loan, and ushered his secretary out of his office, saying he had some urgent issues to attend to.

Around 11 in the morning, Alison peeked in and saw the shoes were still in Mr. Martin's office.

"Hey, Blake, when are you going to give the shoes to Mr. Hawkins," Alison asked in a critical tone.

"I'll do it, I'll do it," Mr. Martin replied. "I'm busy right now. I'll get to it this afternoon." The truth is, of course, that he didn't relish the idea of telling his vice-principal that he had to wear these shoes with these big steel taps on them.

"O.K., but I don't think Brittney wants to see him at lunch time walking around in those soft-soled shoes of his."

The mention of Brittney's name reminded Mr. Martin why he needed to attend to his secretary's wishes. Brittney still had the power to reveal his indiscretions with Alison. While he knew Alison valued her job enough not to say anything, he wasn't sure Brittney wanted anything badly enough to keep quiet, not even the threat to get Susan Wilms in trouble for her similar off-hours socializing with students.

So, right after Alison left, he bucked up his courage and took the horseshoe-tapped ankle boots in to his vice-principal, making sure that Alison saw him leave with the boots in his hands.

"Good morning, Hedley," said Mr. Martin as he entered. "I have a present for you…well, its either that or a favor to ask you. You remember the students' request that all of us wear shoes with metal taps on them this week?" He lifted his own oxfords up so Mr. Hawkins could see the #8 heel and #6 toe taps he had on himself. "Well some of the students noticed that you had on soft-soled shoes that taps wouldn't be able to fit on, so one of the boys said he would loan these to you—they're his favorite pair of dress boots, and they already have taps on them. See." He showed Mr. Hawkins the bottoms of the boots with their large steel horseshoe-shaped plates.

"I'm not going to wear those, Blake."

Hedley Hawkins was a very opinionated person—much more in command of himself than the person he reported to, Blake Martin. He was in his mid-40's, divorced from his 2nd wife who had custody of their two teenage children and lived in the next county. But the one thing he did want was to become a high school principal, if not at Forest Glen then somewhere else in the county. And so Blake knew how to get to him, through the District School Superintendent, Hardin Masters.

"O.K., well I don't want to disappoint the boy who volunteered to loan them to you. So, if you don't mind, I'm going to leave them here in your office, and, well, if you should change your mind for some reason, they'll be right here." Mr. Martin put the boots down on top of Mr. Hawkins' desk, turned, and walked out, ignoring Hedley's proffered objections.

Hedley gingerly picked up the boots, as if they carried a disease, looked at the metal taps on their bottom, shook his head in disbelief, tossed them onto the floor, and went back to work.

Just as he was getting ready to leave for lunch, Mr. Hawkins' phone rang.

"Oh, hello Superintendent. What can I do for you?"

"Hedley, I've just got a second so I'll get right to the point. Hedley, I don't have to tell you that if someone wants to get ahead in the education business how important it is for him to follow the leadership of his supervisor. I know you are hankering for a principalship, and I think it's going to come your way soon enough, but to get there you've just got to play along with what seem like silly little requests that come your way, like this thing that Blake wants you to do for the kids, something to do with your shoes or whatnot. Hedley, just do it and stop being so damn principled about everything! Is that clear?"

"Yes, sir, I will."

Immediately after he hung up the phone, Mr. Hawkins turned around in his chair, reached down for Jose's boots that he'd tossed to the floor, picked them up and began untying his own shoes so he could put them on. He thought, "Well, I better get used to this. I just hope the kids don't get on me too much."

About 10 minutes into the lunch period, the vice principal marched out to take his position overseeing the outdoor eating area. Click-clop, click-clop, click-clop, his newly borrowed boots sounded with new authority as he paraded around the blacktop surface. Minute by minute more and more students noticed Mr. Hawkins was wearing taps on his shoes and the word got around very quickly that not only were they taps, but steel horseshoe plates, with a loud but really solid sound that called everyone to attention.

"Hello, Mr. Hawkins," greeted several cute 9th grade girls. "It's nice to see you here," one said. "Nice boots!" another one added.

"Hey, Mr. Hawk!" called out a couple of boys. "Very cool! Awesome heel plates, sir!"

Wherever he went, that afternoon, Mr. Hawkins was continuously greeted by happy teenagers. No one made any nasty comments about how he'd tried to shut their tap wearing down, but now had to wear them himself.

The vice-principal's main duties at lunch hour were to be sure that students didn't litter the grounds or smoke outside the smoking area or engage in any fighting or drug dealing. That afternoon, he found that whenever he approached a group that was doing something not quite right, they immediately stopped in their tracks and obediently righted what was wrong, picking up the trash they'd dropped, or putting out their cigarettes, or letting go of each other's grasp, and they did so quite willingly. For maybe the first time all year, the students actually seemed to respect his authority rather than pout and curse his name under their breath. The change in their attitudes was sudden and stark.

"Well, maybe these horseshoe taps aren't so bad after all," he thought to himself.

When Friday afternoon came around, and the "all taps week" was coming to an end, very few people asked John Baker to remove the taps from their shoes, not even some of the reluctant teachers like Lynn Friedman. But perhaps the most remarkable event of all was that on Saturday morning, Mr. Hedley Hawkins—the primary opponent of the students' tap-wearing—took his entire collection of eight dress oxfords, loafers, and boots in to Sam's Shoe Repair and had large metal heel and toe taps applied to every pair. "I'd like horseshoes on whichever ones you think they belong on, and I'll take that #8 size on all the others. Plus be sure to put taps on the toes too."

"Yes, sir," smiled Sam. "But I thought you weren't in favor of such things."

"Well," replied Mr. Hawkins, "sometimes you can teach an old dog new tricks. These metal taps are actually a pretty nice invention, don't you think?"


	23. The Girl From Downstate

On the last afternoon of "All Taps Week," John and Barry were at their tap station by the fountain where they were making themselves available to remove taps from the shoes of any of the teachers or students who didn't want to keep them on after the week was over. Brittney came by to see how they were coming along—to see if anyone actually did want to remove their taps. Several of the teachers and a handful of students did, but apparently everyone else was going to keep the taps on their shoes.

"So what are you doing this weekend, Brittney?" asked John during a lull in the conversation. "Do you want to get together some time?"

"Well, I'm not sure, John," Brittney replied. "Some friends of my parents are coming over for the whole weekend and they've got a daughter who they want me to entertain. So I guess I'm kind of stuck."

"O.K., well if anything comes up, give me a call," said John.

Barry chimed in, "and if she's good looking, give me a call too!"

"O.K., will do. 'Bye guys. See you Monday."

Saturday, around noon, the Greene family arrived at Brittney's house. Jonathan Greene was an attorney who was an old high school friend of Brittney's dad, and Phyllis Greene had dated Brittney's Uncle Ted, her mom's brother, during college, before she hooked up with Jon. Accompanying the two adults was their only child, Barbara, a tall shy 16-year old with shoulder-length naturally dark blonde hair. Brittney remembered Barbara when she saw her, but because the Greene's lived about 200 miles away, at the other end of the state, the two girls hadn't seen one another for several years, when both were quite a bit younger.

After the obligatory time in the company of their parents, the two girls excused themselves and went for a walk outside.

While Brittney gathered up her cell phone and straightened her hair, Barbara took a long look at the girl she knew as a tomboy when they were younger. "Hey, I know we were a lot younger the last time, but you look really different. I wouldn't have recognized you. I think you had brown hair then, didn't you?"

"Yeah, probably so. I've had my hair blonde for the past couple of years, though. What do you think of the color?"

"Well, it looks really good on you, but it looks like you need a touch-up though. I can see your brown roots showing."

Brittney laughed. "Yeah, I know. I actually like it when the roots show. I only get it done every couple of months."

As they continued walking down the street, the sharp clickety-clicks of Brittney's tapped-up boots were clearly audible and occasionally visible to her visiting guest.

"What are those metal plates on your shoes for?"

"Oh, these? These are horseshoe taps. Haven't you ever seen them before?"

"Gosh, no, I don't think so. Do other kids at your school put them on their shoes too?"

"Oh sure, almost all the kids at school have metal taps of one kind or another on their shoes. Some women in town do too. Most of the women have small half-moon taps on, but a lot of us kids have these horseshoe taps. They're much louder."

"Yeah, they're plenty loud, aren't they!" Barbara smiled, wondering to herself if she would have the guts to put them on her own shoes.

Brittney pulled a pack of cigarettes and a lighter from her pocket. "Do you want a cigarette?" she asked Barbara, as she pulled one out for herself.

"Um, no thanks. My parents don't let me smoke."

"But they're back in the house! They'll never see you out here."

So with that extra little push, Barbara nodded her head and extended her hand, reaching for Brittney's pack. Brittney offered her a light and the two girls continued on their way, Barbara, a relatively novice smoker, watching Brittney's mannerisms carefully and emulating every move.

Barbara was quickly becoming very impressed with her new friend. "Do you have a boyfriend?" she asked.

"Well, sort of," Brittney replied. "I go out with a bunch of different guys, but I'm pretty close to one of them—John. I try to keep other guys from coming on to me, but I'm not all that successful!"

With that last comment, Barbara blushed red, and although she tried to hide it, Brittney noticed and figured maybe she should tone down a bit. She continued, "How about you? Umm, I mean, do you have a boyfriend?"

"I used to, but we broke up a few weeks ago. He was just too bossy."

"Yeah, I hate it when guys are like that. By the way, do you want to go out tonight? I can set you up with a really nice guy, named Barry, and we can double-date."

"Sure," smiled Barbara, thinking it might be a wonderful opportunity to forget about her ex-.

"Hey, you're 16, aren't you?" said Brittney, rhetorically. "Do you have a license?"

Barbara smiled. She thought to herself, "for once I have something Brittney doesn't!" "Yeah," she replied. "I got it a couple months ago."

"Cool! Will your parents let you take their car? John and Barry aren't 16 yet so it would be a lot easier if you could drive."

"I think they will be o.k. with that," Barbara answered. "Where can we go?"

So Brittney outlined a plan for the rest of the day. First she called up John and told him they had wheels for the evening and to expect her and Barbara to drop by within the hour. Then she called up Barry.

"Hey, Bare," she whispered into her phone. "Are you ready for Barbara? She is One Hot Girl!… Yeah, she's my parents' friends' daughter. You will really like her…. Yeah, I'm whispering," she lied, "so she won't hear me…. What's she like? Well, she's sweet, sort of blonde, and….what's that? Does she put taps on her shoes? I don't think so, but let me ask her."

Brittney muted her phone and turned to Barbara. "He wants to know if you put taps on your shoes. I'm sure he wishes you did. He loves that about me." Without waiting for Barbara to answer, she turned her phone on and said, "Yeah, Barry, she has big noisy taps on her shoes…. And what's more, she DRIVES. We'll pick you up in about an hour, ok?"

Meanwhile, as soon as Brittney spoke the words "she has big noisy taps," Barbara started wildly gesturing and moving her lips to the word, "NO! NO!" and pointing to the plain, unadorned bottoms of her shiny brown penny loafers. And as Brittney was closing up her phone, Barbara yelled out to her, "Brittney! Why did you tell him I had taps on my shoes? You can see I don't!"

Brittney laughed. "Yeah, now you don't but in 15 minutes you will. Our first stop after we get back to the house and get your parents' car will be to drive over to Sam's Shoe Repair and get those loafers of yours all fixed up with metal taps!"

Barbara didn't know what to say. She started to say something about her dad being angry at her, but then she stopped and just smiled faintly. It was hard keeping up with the Brittney whirlwind, so she figured she might as well relax and go along with whatever was going to happen.

When the girls got back to Brittney's house, they asked Mr. and Mrs. Greene if Barbara could take their car so the two of them could go out for the rest of the day. "We'll be really careful," Barbara said. Brittney added, mostly for her own parents, "We're just going to go with John to Barry Browne's house and then probably to the mall or the movies." After a few questions and clarifications, the girls got their parents' assent and headed out the door.

True to her word, Brittney directed Barbara to the town center and to the parking lot down the street from Sam's Shoe Repair. They marched in to the shop, but had to wait several minutes for Sam's attention, since he was already handling several customers including a woman who'd come to pick up what looked like five or six pairs of shoes for her whole family—all newly repaired and all with shiny new metal heel and toe taps. Brittney quickly pointed the taps out to Barbara.

"Hey Sam," said Brittney as the two girls approached the finally-emptied-out counter.

"Hi, Brittney," smiled Sam. "What can I do for my favorite tapgirl today?"

"Sam, this is Barbara," said Brittney. Barbara smiled. "Barbara's from downstate and the kids there haven't discovered taps yet. So Barbara's going to be the first!"

"Oh," said Sam. "You'll be their Christopher Columbus—er, I guess Christine Columbus; the one who explored the new world of Forest Glen, returning home with all kinds of silver and gold—well at least noisy metal taps!"

Barbara smiled. "I guess I will." She took off her penny loafers and handed them to Brittney who, in turn, handed them to Sam.

"What size taps should I put on these?" Sam asked, first turning to Barbara, who shrugged her shoulder, and then turning to Brittney.

"Well, Barbara's going to be going out tonight with Barry Browne so you know she's going to need to have pretty big taps. But this will be her first pair. So how about number 6's on the heels and 4's on the toes?"

Sam nodded and pulled out one tap of each size and placed them against one of Barbara's shoes so she could see what they'd look like.

Barbara smiled. "I guess that will be o.k. They'll take some getting used to."

"Yeah," said Brittney. "But you'll love them by the end of the evening. In fact, you'll probably wish we put on bigger ones!"

So a few minutes later, Sam came back with Barbara's shoes, now sporting those same attention-getters that so many others in Forest Glen were wearing that they hardly warranted a second glance. The visitor dropped them to the floor and was startled by the sound they made. She recovered quickly though and slid her feet into them, scraping them along the floor. Then she stomped each shoe twice on the floor. It was instant success. "These are really cool!" she beamed. "Thank you!"

"Now you're all ready for Barry," said Brittney as the two girls clicked their way back to Barbara's car. "But first we've got to get John."

Barbara drove out of the parking lot and onto Main Street, and Brittney gave her directions to John's house. About a block from his house, Brittney pulled out her cigarettes and offered one to Barbara, who declined.

"John always talks about not liking me to smoke," Brittney started to explain. But Barbara interrupted: "Then why do you do it in front of him?" she asked.

"Actually," answered Brittney, "my smoking turns him on. He just _says_ he doesn't like it." Brittney laughed.

"Really?" inquired Barbara. "Do you think Barry would like it if I smoked?"

"I don't really know. You can always try it and see."

Meanwhile, Barbara had pulled up at John's address, so Brittney put away her cigarettes and leaned over and honked the car's horn. John came out, clicking noisily in his engineer boots with horseshoe taps, toe taps, and big side taps. Brittney introduced him to Barbara, he got into the back seat and off they went to get Barry.

When they got to Barry's, he was already waiting for them, lying down on his lawn, hands behind his head, boots spread out in front of him, his horseshoe taps shining in the setting sun. He sauntered up to the car, and Brittney got out and ushered Barry into the front seat, introducing the blind date pair as she joined John in the back seat.

"Barry, tell Barbara how to get to the mall—she's from downstate, you know." And then she turned back to John and kissed him on the lips.

When they got to the mall, Brittney directed Barbara to a parking spot away from most of the cars, and the two couples got out of the car.

"I need a cigarette before we go into the mall," Brittney announced to the others. She took one out of her pack and before she lit it, she called out, "Anyone else want one?" She knew that neither John nor Barry smoked, so it wasn't surprising that the only answer she got came from Barbara.

"Barry, would you mind if I smoked?" Barbara asked.

"Well," said Barry. "You gotta do what you gotta do!… Sure, that's ok."

Brittney lit Barbara's cigarette and the two couples proceeded to walk slowly towards the mall entrance, four pairs of tapped-up shoes and boots clicking loudly on the concrete. The sound of Barbara's taps quickly turned Barry on. And watching Barbara's long slow sexy exhales enhanced the overall effect. This was a girl for him, he thought—attractive in a pleasant way, and fairly reserved—especially compared to Brittney—yet confident and assertive, as suggested by her noisy taps and her smoking.

Once the two girls had finished their cigarettes, the two couples entered the mall. Brittney pointed out the drug store where she worked, waving to the boy who was on duty that evening. Then they wandered around the mall, going into and out of almost every store. After a bit, Brittney noticed that despite Barry and Barbara seeming to be enjoying themselves, both of them being somewhat shy, there wasn't a lot of conversation passing between them. She suggested to John that perhaps the two couples should split up so that Barry and Barbara could get to know one another better. She told them that she needed to go out for a smoke again, and suggested the two couples meet at the movie theatre at 7:30—mentally calculating that would give the new couple an hour and a half together.

"I hear that Knocked Up is an awesome flick. It starts at 7:40. How does that sound?" said Brittney?

The other three nodded their approval.

"What shall we do for dinner?" Barry asked.

"Well, Bare, I guess you're on your own for that," Brittney replied.

Barbara whispered in Barry's ear, "My treat! I have money from my folks!" She smiled. Barry smiled back. Wow, he thought. A pretty girl who turns me on and pays for dinner! This was going to be great!

As soon as Brittney and John clicked their way out of sight, Barbara turned to Barry. "So which is the nicest restaurant here?"

He suggested they go to Fuddrucker's, and knowing that chain from her own town, she agreed.

As they walked towards the restaurant, Barry listened to the sound Barbara's shoes were making as they walked along the terrazzo floor, and he remembered he'd noticed the taps on her shoes earlier.

"Those are new taps on your shoes, aren't they?" he asked.

"Yeah, how did you know?" Barbara replied.

"Well, they are pretty shiny. Taps don't keep their shine unless you apply a file or sandpaper to them."

Barbara continued, "Actually, Brittney took me to the shoe repair just before we picked you guys up. I've never had taps on my shoes before."

"No shit!" Barry exclaimed. "But I thought Brittney said…. Oh, never mind." He changed the subject, "How do you like the taps?"

"Very cool," said Barbara, as she raised the bottom of her shoes so she and Barry could both see the taps. "They're not horseshoes like Brittney has on hers, but I really like the clicky sounds they make."

"Nice!" said Barry. "They look like size 5's or 6's on the heels and 3's or 4's on the toes, right?"

"Sixes and fours," said Barbara. "I'm impressed you could tell! Those are the sizes that Brittney said I should have."

"If you want," Barry suggested, "I could put taps on all your shoes and boots. John and I have a portable set-up for putting taps on."

"Can you put on horseshoe taps too?"

"Sure!" said Barry. "Horseshoes are the best! Especially for boots and for penny loafers like the ones you have on."

"Cool!" said Barbara, repeating her favorite word. "Maybe we can do that when we go back to your house later this evening. I'd really like that!" And to emphasize her feelings, she abruptly put her arms around Barry, pulled herself up to his face and gave him a big, wet kiss.

That kiss shocked both of them, Barbara herself more than Barry.

Embarrassed at her boldness, Barbara pulled back. "Gosh, Barry," she apologized. "I don't know what got into me."

"Hey," replied Barry. "Don't apologize! I loved that!"

Barbara continued, trying to explain her behavior. "I guess it was that I'm pretty excited by these taps that Brittney had put on my shoes. So thinking about having horseshoe taps like you and Brittney have—and having you put them on my shoes yourself—that was just too much!"

Taking hold of her shoulders with both his hands, Barry pulled Barbara towards him. "Barbara, there's _nothing_ in the world I'd rather do right now than put horseshoe taps on your shoes. I wish we could do that instead of going to the movies." And then he pulled her up to him and touched her face, drew her lips towards him, and gave her such a tender, loving kiss that it almost made her cry.

When they released themselves from their embrace, an idea came to Barbara.

"Hey, it's still more than an hour before we're supposed to meet John and Brittney. What if instead of having a sit-down dinner, we just get a hamburger and then drive back to your house and you can put the horseshoe taps on my shoes. Then we could come back here and meet Brittney and John at the theatre."

"Great idea!" replied Barry. So off they went to the food court, grabbed some burgers, fries, and colas, and carried them, clicking along in their metal-tapped shoes, back to the car. Not even stopping to eat their burgers, Barbara sped out of the parking lot so fast that Barry almost spilled their drinks in his lap.

With Barry providing directions, it only took them 10 minutes to get to his house—both of them snarfing down their food as Barbara drove—and just a few seconds to breeze past his mom—"Hi mom—this is Barbara—we'll be downstairs." They descended the stairway to the basement where he had his collection of taps and the portable anvil that John shared with him.

"Wow," said Barbara when she saw his set-up. "You sure have a lot of taps! I wish I had my other shoes with me so you could put taps on _all_ of them!"

"Well, we'll just start with the ones you've got and go from there. Why don't you take off your loafers so I can see what size horseshoes will fit."

"You mean there are different sizes of horseshoe taps?" she asked.

"Sure," replied Barry as he lifted one of his legs so Barbara could see the horseshoe taps on his boots. "See, they have to fit from side to side and heels have different widths. These horseshoes are size 9-10s. Let me measure the heels on your loafers."

As she handed her loafers to him, Barbara noticed something about the bottoms of Barry's boots she hadn't seen before. "Hey, you have taps on the sides of the soles too."

"Yeah," said Barry. "Most of us put side taps on also—Brittney does and even her English teacher, Ms Wilms, has side taps on her boots."

"Really?" exclaimed Barbara. "Teachers have taps on their shoes too?"

"Yeah, around here they do. But Ms Wilms is kinda like an older sister to Brittney—she has big taps on all her shoes and boots."

"Wow! Well, can you put side taps on my loafers after you put the horseshoes on?"

"Sure, if you want. That would be cool. Brittney has side taps on most of her loafers and so do some of the other girls."

"Can you actually take off the taps the shoemaker put on or are you going to put the horseshoes on top of the ones on there now?"

"Better to take the ones you have off. But I could put two horseshoe taps on each shoe, one over the other. That's what I have on these boots, and they'll be way louder that way."

"Well, if you'd asked me 5 hours ago, I'd have said 'no way,' but now I'll take as many taps as you want to put on." And despite her generally shy approach to boys, she turned towards Barry and give him a big open-mouthed kiss.

After they released from their embrace, Barry got down to work. First he pried off the #6 heel taps, and then measured the width of Barbara's heel—2 1/8 inch exactly. "That would be size 2-3 horseshoes," he said mostly to himself.

Barbara was feeling increasingly frisky. As Barry was searching through his drawer for the right size of horseshoe taps, she walked around behind him, and put her arms around him. Barry was preoccupied with his work, and barely noticed that Barbara was putting one of her hands on his belt while she pulled on his pants with her other hand.

"That feels really nice," he said to her. "But lets wait till I get these taps on. You don't want me to mess up, do you?"

"OK, you're right," she replied. And she backed off to watch him work. He applied two horseshoe plates to one of the heels, and then hammered in the six nails, checking that the taps were firmly attached. After doing the same with the other heel, he went searching through his drawer for taps for the sides of the soles. He found some with the number 2 on them and measured them up against one of the loafers, putting one on each side of the sole.

"They're little!" Barbara exclaimed.

"Yeah, but this is where your shoe bends when you walk so they can't be much bigger."

"Let me see the ones on your boots," she asked.

"Yeah, mine are bigger but my boot sole is thicker so it doesn't bend as much as your loafers do."

"Well, ok," Barbara answered with some disappointment. "Whatever you say is best."

"You'll like these," Barry assured her. "I promise."

"Are the nails going to hurt my feet?" she asked as Barry started attaching the side taps to the shoes.

"No, I'm using short nails and I hammer in the nails so that they bend back towards the surface so they don't go all the way through the sole."

After another minute or two, Barry raised Barbara's loafers up so she could see all her new taps—double-thick horseshoes covering nearly all of the heels and carefully placed and appropriately balanced small half-moon taps on either side of the sole about two inches down from her steel toe tap—which was the only tap left from shoemaker Sam's work just two hours earlier. As Barry he handed Barbara her shoes, he planted a tender kiss on her cheek.

Barbara placed her newly re-tapped loafers onto the basement cement floor, and slid her feet into them. As she took her first steps in horseshoe-tapped shoes, they both listened to the sound her heels and soles made—a clickety-clop-click-click sound that was music to their ears.

"They're louder than the first pair was," Barbara said approvingly. "I like that. This afternoon, when Brittney said she was going to take my loafers to the shoe repair guy, I didn't think I'd like making clicky sounds when I walk, but now I really do! And you were right! The horseshoes are the best! I like the side taps too! Even when I just slide my foot forward, I can hear the side taps scraping across the floor. Awesome!" And feeling both romantic and assertive, she took the liberty of touching Barry in all the right places.

"Come on!" said Barry. "Let's go back to the mall. I wonder if Brittney and John will notice the difference in your shoes!"

So Barry and Barbara high-tailed it back to the mall and got there just as Brittney and John were about to walk into the theatre.

"Where WERE you guys," Brittney called out. "We looked all over the mall for you. Couldn't find you anywhere. Then we walked back to the car and the car was GONE! We thought you'd stranded us here! OK, no matter. Here—we already got your tickets." Then after handing the two tickets to Barry and without waiting for an answer to her questions, she turned around and led everyone into the movie theatre. As they walked in, Barbara made a point of dragging her heels and sliding her feet along the cement, trying to make especially obvious noise with her new taps. But Brittney was oblivious and kept walking.

John, though, noticed immediately the clippety-clop-scrape-scrape sound that Barbara's shoes made, so he made a point of trying to see what kind of taps Barbara had on her shoes. He stepped back and let Barbara and Barry pass him by. Seeing the horseshoes and side taps on Barbara's loafers, his hunch was proven correct.

"Like those horseshoe taps, Barbara," he said as he caught up with the group again.

"Yeah, Barry just put them on my loafers—that's why we were gone from the mall."

"So you guys were pretty busy while we had dinner, huh?" He smiled at Barry, then turned to Barbara.

She smiled back. "Yup. Have to compete with blondie there," she replied, pointing to Brittney.

Brittney sensed she was missing out on the conversation. As they were reaching a row of empty seats, she turned back to the others. "What's that about competing with me?"

As they sat down, John asked Barbara to slip off her loafers so he could show Brittney. She did and passed them to John who in turn showed them to Brittney.

"No shit!" cried Brittney. "Where'd you get those horseshoe taps—double taps! And side taps too! So that's where you guys went!" And she seemed quite pleased that her new tap wearing protégé had taken to them so well that she'd "upgraded" her taps so quickly.

The movie was a gas—about a one-night stand that ends up in a pregnancy. The guy is a slacker with no job and no plans and the girl's a smartly dressed, blonde T.V. interviewer on an entertainment channel. After the movie, the four of them went into Fuddrucker's to have a snack and to chat.

"That Allison character, I'll bet she has taps on her shoes," Brittney said. "I really liked her."

"Yeah, probably her and her sister too," added John. "They were both tough bitches. Those wimps of guys they were with couldn't hold a candle to them."

"I liked that she was in T.V. news, just like Kelly!" added Brittney.

Barry explained to Barbara about Kelly. "Brittney's got this mid-20's cheerleader-type friend who's one of our T.V. personalities. She never shuts up about her—like they were sisters or something!"

"That reminds me," mused Brittney. "Kelly said I should come by after school next week to talk to the manager about a summer job. Wouldn't that be cool!"

"Yeah?" said John. "I'll bet the manager wants to see you up in his private office, and you'll have to audition for him, if you know what I mean."

"No way, you dork," replied Brittney. "Those are mature people on that T.V. station; not punks like you!" And she punctuated her comment by a quick kick of her shoe under the table that got John right on his shin-bone.

"Hey, Brittney!" yelled John. "Careful with those steel side taps of yours. You could kill someone with those."

"Yeah," said Barry. "Just like that little girl in that T.V. movie we saw last month. 'Bad Seed,' wasn't that its name?"

"Right!" called out John. "That was Brittney in another life! You better not get on her bad side or she'll beat you to death with her steel heel taps, just like that cute little girl did in the movie."

"Ok, you guys, enough already," said Brittney. "Let's split."

So the four of them walked back into the mall, and paraded noisily back and forth from one end to the other, three or four times, 'till they all got bored of all the attention they were getting and headed back to Barbara's car.

"So Barbara," asked Brittney. "How do you like your new taps—double horseshoes and side and toe taps! Wow! You really went into taps big time on your first try!"

"They're awesome," replied Barbara. "One thing I notice, though, is that the horseshoes on the left heel are louder than the ones on the right. Does that happen a lot?" She took several steps with each foot as the others listened to the sounds her taps made on the cement.

"Yeah, I see what you mean," said Barry. "Sorry,…but I can fix that. I can re-attach the horseshoes on the left shoe so they'll be a little quieter and match the ones on the right."

"Oh, no!" exclaimed Barbara. "I was thinking of the other way—doing the right ones over again so they can be louder, like the ones on the left!"

Barry and John smiled. Just their kind of girl, they thought. "Sure," said Barry. "I can do that when we get back to my house."

So they all climbed back into Barbara's parents' car and headed back to Barry's.

Back inside, after checking that Barry's folks were still out ("They always go to the late night show on Saturdays," said Barry), the four kids headed for the fridge.

"Cold beer! There's got to be some beer here, right?" asked Brittney.

"No," said Barry. "My mom won't let me drink beer anyway. She says not till I'm 18."

"What a bitch," said Brittney. "I think she needs to be brought into the new century."

Brittney thought for awhile. "Hey, Bare," does your mom put taps on any of her shoes?"

"No," replied Barry. "In fact, she's mad at me for marking up the floors with the taps on my shoes and boots."

"Then I think she needs a little help, don't you John?" She turned first to John, who just shrugged his head.

"Come on, Barbara, let's go see what kind of shoes Barry's mom has that would be good to have taps on."

Meanwhile, Barbara had slipped off her loafers, handed the right shoe to Barry for its "repair," and while the two boys headed for the basement to work on Barbara's shoe, the two girls went to check out Barry's mom's collection of shoes.

"Wow!" exclaimed Brittney as she opened the closet door. "Barry's mom has a lot of shoes! There must be 50 pairs in here!"

"Well my mom has at least that many," said Barbara. "She's always buying shoes on e-bay!"

"Here's a good pair," said Brittney. She held up for Barbara to see—a pair of black suede zip-up ankle boots with a broad 2-inch heel. I'll bet #5's would fit on these heels, and she might even like the sound they make! Let's take these downstairs and see what Barry says."

"Oh, look," said Barbara. "Here's a pair of penny loafers—just like the ones I have. Wouldn't these be good with taps too?"

"Yeah, let's take those, too. Let's see if Barry will put #6's on these. That's what Sam would probably put on if Mrs. Browne brought them into his shop."

Before they were done, the girls had picked out 5 pair to have taps put on—the black ankle boots, the penny loafers, a pair of red mid-heel pumps, some strappy sandals, and a pair of beige skimmer flats.

They ran down the stairs to the basement with their haul to show the boys.

"Hey," cried Barry. "I can't put taps on my own mom's shoes!"

"Why not?" screamed Brittney.

"Well, for one thing she wouldn't want them--I'd be in big trouble! And for another—she's my mom, for Chrissake. That's like incest!"

Meanwhile, Barry brought Barbara's re-tapped right loafer up for her inspection. She banged the heel, with its double horseshoe steel tap, on the floor. It made a really loud sound.

"Very nice!" said Barbara, her face beaming.

"See. I made the right one louder by attaching the back nails through only the bottom horseshoe, so the two taps clang against each other."

"Oh, that's how you did it? Won't that one be a lot louder than the left one now?"

"It might be. If you want, I can fix the other one to be just like this one."

"Oh yes," said Barbara. "I definitely like the sound that these make much better. Please fix the other shoe just the same way." She handed the left shoe to Barry who went back to work.

Meanwhile, John and Brittney were talking about the five pairs of Barry's mom's shoes the girls had brought down stairs.

"Well, what if you put them on, John?" suggested Brittney.

"Umm, no. Barry would still be in trouble," John reasoned.

"Then, I'll do it myself!" Brittney yelled. "You guys go out for a walk, and I'll put the taps on. I've watched you and Barry and Sam put them on. I know how. It was my idea anyway. Barbara and I will put the shoes back in the closet, just where we found them, and you and Barry don't have to know a thing. When Barry's mom puts on any of these shoes for the first time, maybe a few days from now, maybe two weeks from now, Barry will honestly be able to say he didn't know how the taps got there. And he won't know, right? They'll just be there."

And so that is how Barry's mom got into wearing taps on her shoes. Brittney, who hadn't ever applied taps to any of her own shoes, put heel taps (she couldn't do toe taps) on four pairs of Mrs. Browne's shoes. (The nails wouldn't easily go into the mid-heel pumps, so those got returned to the closet tapless.) She installed #5's on the ankle boots, and #6's on the sandals and the flats, but she decided to go really large on the loafers and put #7's on them. "It's probably bigger than what Sam would have done, but she deserves these for not having any beer in the fridge!"

Mrs. Browne's first discovery of the fact that some of her shoes had metal taps on their heels came about 5 days later on her way out the door, rushing off for her hair appointment. She hadn't noticed the taps when she put on her beige skimmer flats that morning, and only noticed them when she stepped onto her driveway, headed to her car. Hearing the sound of metal on cement, she knew what that meant. She slipped off one of her shoes, picked it up, turned it over, and saw the large crescent-shaped silver plate affixed to the bottom of her flat's leather heel. She shook her head, and muttered, "Damn that Barry!" But she was in too much of a hurry to do anything else about it, so she went off to meet her hairdresser.

"Good morning," Mrs. Browne, called out Joanne, her regular hairdresser. "Cut, wash, and set, and a touch-up to those roots this morning?" she confirmed.

"Yes, Joanne," Mrs. Browne replied.

As the two settled in for their regular routine, Mrs. Browne brought the subject up herself. "So, Joanne, do you want to know what my son Barry did? He put metal taps on my shoes. See—look!" Mrs. Browne let one of her flats slip off her foot and brought it up to show her hairdresser. The 2-inch crescent steel plate shined in the overhead light.

"Well, that was nice of him," said Joanne. "That saves you a trip to the shoemaker, doesn't it?"

"Well, no, I wasn't planning to put taps on my shoes. Do you have them on your shoes?"

"As a matter of fact, yes, I've started to. About a month ago, I began noticing taps on some of my customers' shoes. They'd come into the shop, and I'd hear the click-click of their shoes on the tile floor. It kind of peaked my interest, so a couple weeks ago, I had taps put on several pairs of shoes at the shoe repair place on Main Street. She lifted up her left foot, so Mrs. Browne could see the two-inch metal plate covering most of the heel of the white oxfords she'd worn to work that day. I actually like them. They make a sweet sound. Don't you think?"

"But why do you think Barry did that?" Mrs. Browne asked, almost rhetorically.

"Why don't you ask him," suggested Joanne.

"Well, as a matter of fact, I'm just assuming he put them on. He is really into taps—he's got a setup in the basement for putting taps on his and his friends' shoes. This morning, I put on these flats and noticed that they had taps on. It must have been him."

"Maybe it was your husband's idea," suggested Joanne. "My boyfriend has gone bananas since I started wearing taps on my shoes. He absolutely loves the sound I make when we are walking on cement or tile or even wood floors. He's told me he wishes I'd put taps on all my shoes, and bigger ones than the ones I had put on. I told him I'd think about it. Actually, I'm planning to do that and to add toe taps also, but I don't want to admit it to him. It's more effective if I keep him hanging a little bit, you know what I mean?"

"Well, maybe my husband did have something to do with this. But either way, I guess I'll give it a shot. I just wish they'd have told me ahead of time."

"Yeah, but you'd never have agreed to it, would you? It's only because the taps are there, on your shoes, and you're click-clacking around in them, that you realize they're a pretty nice idea."

"Joanne, you're so smart! You could have lots of jobs besides coloring hair. But I love you for it."

When she got home, and confronted Barry about the taps on her flats, he first protested that he had nothing to do with it. But his mom didn't believe him, and when she asked him, "Are there taps on any other pairs of my shoes or are these the only ones?" he kind of blew his cover.

"I think there are four or five pairs that have taps on," he said, suggesting he knew what had happened. So he admitted to knowing about the taps going on his mom's shoes but said "it was Brittney's idea, and she was the one who put them on."

Mrs. Browne didn't quite believe that story, either, but her reaction surprised Barry anyway. She said "Well, Barry, that's ok. I actually like the sound they make. Show me the other shoes that have taps on them." The two of them went rifling through her closet—Barry wasn't quite sure which shoes had them or where they were. But each time they picked up a pair that didn't have any taps on them, Mrs. Browne would look disappointed. After awhile, she said, "Barry, why don't you just go ahead and put metal taps on all my shoes. I think it might be nice."

"But no horseshoes!" she added. "You can put some on like the ones you put on these flats, or even like the large taps on the loafers you just showed me…. Mmm, what about the 2-inch pumps I have? These taps wouldn't fit on those little heels. Do you have smaller ones for heels like that?"

"Yes, mom, I have taps in all sizes. But I also have dance taps that would cover the whole heel on those pumps. Most of the girls put dance taps on their little heels."

"OK, that would be fine."

"Do you want toe taps on your shoes too?"

"Sure, why not! I can kick your dad when he's being mean to me. (Just kidding.) Yes, go ahead and put taps front and back on all 50 pairs. I'm ready to be a tapgirl!"

And what happened to Brittney's friend Barbara? Well, the third tapping of her loafers was definitely the best. The double horseshoes, with the rear nails holding down only one of the two pieces of steel, made the best and loudest sound, especially when supported by big toe taps and taps on the sides of the soles. When Barbara got back to her hometown, she instantly became the tap-princess of downstate. First the girls, and then the guys, emulated her with large metal taps coming to grace their shoes, just as had happened in Forest Glen. And Barry found that all of a sudden he had lots of reasons to travel to that part of the state. Soon all of Barbara's shoes had taps on them and Barry and Barbara had become an item—well known among teens in both of their towns. All because of the incredible draw of the sound of steel-shod shoes on tile floors.


End file.
